State Farm Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Vandiver

In State Farm Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. v. Vandiver, 941 S.W.2d 343 (Tex App.--Waco 1997, no pet.) the court reporter failed to take notes of portions of depositions that were read into the record. The Court of Appeals held that the tapes could be used to establish the pages and lines of the depositions and that the record could be supplemented with the parts of the depositions. Id. at 343. The Court of Appeals specifically rejected its prior holding that the use of materials other than the notes taken at trial to supplement the reporter's record would constitute a new record. Id. In Vandiver, portions of several exhibits and depositions were read to the jury. An audio recording of every instance where this occurred was made by the court reporter. There was no contention that what was read at trial differed in any way from the actual wording of the relevant exhibits and depositions. In addition, it was undisputed that the court reporter, by listening to the audio tapes to find where the portions of these exhibits and depositions began and ended, could reconstruct the very testimony that was missing from the original statement of facts. Therefore, the Court concluded that the statement of facts could be properly supplemented with the exhibit and deposition testimony that was missing from the original statement of facts. Ibid.