In Gen. Motors Corp. v. Gayle, 951 S.W.2d 469 (Tex. 1997), the trial court set the case for trial on January 3, 1996. The defendant believed that another party to the case had paid the jury fee and that the case was on the jury docket. When the defendant appeared in the trial court on the date of the trial setting, it discovered that no party had paid a jury fee and that, therefore, the case was on the nonjury docket. The trial court informed the parties that it intended to begin the nonjury trial two days later. The defendant immediately paid the jury fee and filed an objection to the trial court setting the case on the nonjury docket. The defendant also moved for a continuance of the January 5 trial setting on the ground that the case was not ready for trial because of pending discovery issues. The defendant further asserted that a continuance of the trial setting was necessary to allow its payment of the jury fee to become timely. In Gayle, the trial court denied the defendant's motion for continuance but conceded that the case was not ready for trial. The trial court stated that "this case still has some discovery that needs to be done." Id. at 471. Because of discovery issues that needed to be resolved, the trial court decided not to hear any evidence in the case until January 29, twenty-six days after the defendant paid the jury fee. The trial court also acknowledged that outstanding discovery issues would probably cause additional interruptions to the trial proceedings. The Texas Supreme Court held that the trial court had abused its discretion in denying the defendant's motion for continuance: "The trial judge commenced the nonjury trial in the teeth of a demand for a jury trial, timing the proceedings to avoid the requirements of Rule 216(a), with no expectation of reaching the heart of the case for some weeks or months. In light of such preordained delays, the defendant established that a thirty-day continuance to perfect its jury trial demand would not cause the plaintiffs any injury or delay. In fact, the trial court's seriatim trial schedule seems only a sham to hold the defendant to its mistake in not paying the jury fee without penalizing the other side. Under these particular and unusual circumstances, we hold that the trial court abused its discretion by not granting a continuance to allow the defendant's jury request and fee to become timely." Id. at 477.