Hausenbauer, Leonard J. v. Vox Populi Telecommunications, Inc. ( 2002 )

  Opinion Issued April 25, 2002  

In The

Court of Appeals

For The

First District of Texas

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NO. 01-01-00121-CV

___________

LEONARD J. HAUSENBAUER, Appellant

V.

VOX POPULI TELECOMMUNICATIONS, INC., Appellee

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On Appeal from the 151st District Court

Harris County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. 97-59184

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O P I N I O N

Appellant, Leonard J. Hausenbauer, appeals from a judgment awarding appellee, Vox Populi Telecommunications, Inc. (Vox), damages, attorney's fees, and a permanent injunction. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Vox is a telecommunications company in which Hausenbauer was a minority shareholder, officer, and director. He was primarily responsible for Vox's financial management. On December 10, 1996, Hausenbauer resigned as an officer of Vox.

On January 9, 1997, Hausenbauer closed Vox's checking account and withdrew all of the corporate funds without authorization. This unauthorized withdrawal caused Vox to lose sales representatives and customers and caused an injury to Vox's reputation. Vox removed Hausenbauer from the board of directors on January 10, 1997. After resigning as an officer of Vox and being removed as a director, Hausenbauer sent several letters, which were adverse to Vox's interests, to its customers, banking institutions, and corporate attorney. He also filed an unauthorized bankruptcy on behalf of the company.

After a bench trial, the trial judge found that Hausenbauer had engaged in harmful conduct in breach of his fiduciary duty to Vox and interfered with Vox's business relations and that Hausenbauer's actions were intended to harm Vox. The trial judge ordered Hausenbauer to forfeit and return all stock certificates in his control or possession to Vox, to be permanently enjoined from misrepresenting himself as a fiduciary of Vox, and to pay Vox $20,000 in attorney's fees.   

ANALYSIS

Hausenbauer did not pay for the entire reporter's record in this case, and thus, he has failed to provide this Court with a complete record of the bench trial. After notice to Hausenbauer, we ordered this case taken with the reporter's record on file as of November 30, 2001. See Tex. R. App. P. 37.3(c).

In points of error one through seven and nine, Hausenbauer contends that the trial judge erred in her findings of fact because the evidence at trial did not support such findings. When an appellant complains about the factual or legal sufficiency of the evidence, he must furnish the appellate court with a full reporter's record to show that the trial judge's judgment was erroneous. See Schafer v. Conner, 813 S.W.2d 154, 155 (Tex. 1991). Because only one of two volumes of the reporter's record is before this Court, we presume the omitted portions are relevant to disposition of the appeal and favor the trial judge's disposition. See Gallagher v. Fire Ins. Exch., 950 S.W.2d 370, 370 (Tex. 1997) (quoting Christiansen v. Prezelski, 782 S.W.2d 842, 843 (Tex. 1990)). We overrule Hausenbauer's points of error one through seven and nine.

In his eighth point of error, Hausenbauer contends that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to consider the present case because of a pending bankruptcy. However, because we do not have a complete reporter's record on appeal, we cannot consider this point. See Gallagher, 950 S.W.2d at 370. We overrule Hausenbauer's eighth point of error.

We affirm the judgment.

Murry B. Cohen

Justice  

  Panel consists of Justices Cohen, Nuchia, and Smith. ⁽¹⁾

Do not publish. Tex. R. App. P. 47.

1.

The Honorable Jackson B. Smith, retired Justice, Court of Appeals, First District of Texas at Houston, participating by assignment.