Ron Valk D/B/A Platinum Construction v. Copper Creek Distributors, Inc. and Jose Doniceth Escoffie

Supreme Court of Texas
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                             No. 24-0516
                            ══════════

               Ron Valk d/b/a Platinum Construction,
                                 Petitioner,

                                     v.

   Copper Creek Distributors, Inc. and Jose Doniceth Escoffie,
                                 Respondents

   ═══════════════════════════════════════
              On Petition for Review from the
       Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas
   ═══════════════════════════════════════

                       Argued October 8, 2025

      JUSTICE HUDDLE delivered the opinion of the Court.

      When a party presents multiple grounds for reversal of a
judgment on appeal, appellate courts must first address issues that, if
meritorious, would require rendition. This longstanding rule is intuitive
and promotes judicial economy by moving the case to the greatest
achievable degree of finality.
      Here, the court of appeals found charge error, concluded it was
harmful, and remanded for a new trial. But in doing so, the court
leapfrogged issues raised on appeal that, if sustained, would result in
rendition of judgment for the appellants. Taking that shortcut was
reversible error in itself. And here, the failure to grapple with the case
as a whole yielded a second error: a harm analysis too underdeveloped
to justify discarding a jury verdict in favor of a do-over. We reverse the
court of appeals’ judgment and remand the case to that court.
                           I.   Background
      In 2017, Ron Valk d/b/a Platinum Construction hired Don Triplett
as a superintendent for two Platinum self-storage center construction
projects, where Triplett supervised large teams of workers. Triplett
later hired Darryl Briggs, with whom he had worked on other business
ventures, to help supervise the projects. A few months later, Triplett
and Briggs, along with Triplett’s husband, Doni Escoffie, formed a
company for their own residential construction projects—Copper Creek
Distributors, Inc.
      Soon after Copper Creek came into existence, Platinum
discovered the fraudulent scheme at the center of this case. Triplett was
diverting Platinum personnel to work on Triplett’s residential
construction projects while they were being paid to work for Platinum.
The scheme unraveled when Platinum learned that Briggs was not
present at the jobsite where Platinum records showed he was clocked in.
When confronted, Briggs responded that he was following Triplett’s
orders to help with Triplett’s projects. Further investigation revealed
that Briggs was one of many Platinum workers Triplett diverted.
      Platinum sued for theft of services, tortious interference with an
existing contractual relationship, and unjust enrichment.       Platinum
alleged Triplett concocted the labor-theft scheme for Copper Creek’s




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benefit and executed it with Copper Creek’s other owners, Briggs and
Escoffie.
        As discovery proceeded, the spoliation issue at the center of the
court of appeals’ opinion took shape. Platinum learned that Copper
Creek no longer had access to its emails or QuickBooks accounting
records for the relevant time period and alleged that Copper Creek
closed those accounts to conceal the records from discovery. For its part,
Copper Creek denied wrongdoing, claiming that any missing emails or
records resulted from the fact that its accounts were no longer needed
and had lapsed for nonpayment.
        Three months before trial, Platinum asked the trial court to
sanction Copper Creek by including a spoliation instruction in the jury
charge, asserting that the absence of Copper Creek’s emails and
QuickBooks records prevented Platinum from fashioning its damages
case.   Copper Creek responded that the request was premature—
Platinum had neither identified discoverable emails or QuickBooks
records that had been spoliated nor even obtained rulings on Copper
Creek’s discovery objections.1 The trial court agreed with Platinum that
a spoliation instruction was proper but deferred deciding the
instruction’s substance.




        1 Platinum previously moved to compel Copper Creek and Escoffie to

produce their emails, but the record does not reflect any ruling. Platinum
separately moved for sanctions against Escoffie, alleging he committed perjury
when he denied ever using an email account associated with Copper Creek.
The trial court heard and denied the sanctions motion in August 2022.
Platinum then filed its motion for a spoliation jury instruction.




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      At trial, the defendants disclaimed liability and asserted that if
anyone stole labor from Platinum, it was Triplett, whom Platinum had
nonsuited after he filed for bankruptcy.        They also criticized the
damages evidence, contending both that it was untimely disclosed and
that it was unreliable and conclusory, amounting to no evidence.
      Platinum’s retort before the jury was that Copper Creek’s missing
emails and QuickBooks records would have shored up Platinum’s
damages case, so Copper Creek should not be allowed to hide evidence
that would prove the extent of the labor diversion and simultaneously
argue that Platinum’s damages estimates were incomplete. Platinum
repeated this theme throughout the trial, referring to the emails and
QuickBooks records as the missing pieces of the puzzle.        Platinum
mentioned    the     missing   evidence    in     opening   statements,
cross-examination of Triplett and Escoffie, and closing argument—all
without objection.
      Copper Creek did, however, object to the spoliation instruction in
the jury charge. The trial court overruled the objection and instructed
the jury:
      Copper Creek Distributors, Inc. destroyed or failed to
      preserve evidence in this lawsuit, including accounting
      books and records and e-mails . . . . You may consider that
      this evidence would have been unfavorable to Copper
      Creek Distributors, Inc. on the issue of theft of services,
      tortious   interference    with       existing  contractual
      relationship, unjust enrichment and/or alter-ego.




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The jury sided with Platinum and awarded $150,000 in damages for the
labor theft, which was considerably less than the amount Platinum
sought.2
       Copper Creek and Escoffie raised eleven issues on appeal.3
Among other things, they argued that Platinum’s damages evidence
(1) should have been excluded because it was not timely disclosed and
(2) was contradictory and speculative lay-witness testimony that was
legally insufficient to support the verdict. They also complained that
there was legally and factually insufficient evidence to justify liability
against Copper Creek or against Escoffie on the basis that he was
Copper Creek’s alter ego.         Finally, Escoffie argued that limitations
barred at least one claim.
       The court of appeals reversed and remanded. 716 S.W.3d 759,
770 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2024). But in doing so, it considered only one
issue: whether the trial court erred in submitting the spoliation
instruction.   Id. at 761.        The court concluded the instruction was


       2 Shawn Valk, who oversaw Platinum’s day-to-day operations, testified

about Platinum’s two damages models. The first relied on time-punch records
at the worksites—in some cases, workers input their time manually instead of
registering their arrival and departure through QR codes. Valk used these
deviations from Platinum’s standard policies, as well as his own observations,
to estimate how often particular workers were “on the clock” for Platinum but
physically located somewhere other than a Platinum worksite. Based on this
model, Valk estimated that the value of the labor theft totaled around
$311,000. The second damages model relied on Platinum’s budgeting. Valk
compared Platinum’s budgeted labor costs to the actual costs and attributed
overruns on the self-storage projects that Triplett and Briggs supervised to the
labor-theft scheme. Valk testified that this methodology yielded damages of
about $673,000.
       3 Briggs did not appeal.




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erroneous and harmful and remanded the case for a new trial in the
interest of justice, reasoning that the erroneous instruction prevented
full development and presentation of the evidence.             Id. at 768–70.
Platinum petitioned this Court for review.
                               II. Discussion
       “[W]e have consistently held that when multiple grounds for
reversal of a trial court’s judgment are presented, courts of appeals
should ‘first address issues that would require rendition’ and thus
should consider those issues before ordering a remand.” FieldTurf USA,
Inc. v. Pleasant Grove Indep. Sch. Dist., 642 S.W.3d 829, 836 (Tex. 2022)
(quoting Nat. Gas Pipeline Co. of Am. v. Pool, 124 S.W.3d 188, 201 (Tex.
2003)). This order of operations is mandatory.4 See, e.g., Huynh v.
Blanchard, 694 S.W.3d 648, 690 & n.69 (Tex. 2024); Pool, 124 S.W.3d at
201–02; Bradleys’ Elec., Inc. v. Cigna Lloyds Ins. Co., 995 S.W.2d 675,
677 (Tex. 1999); Lone Star Gas Co. v. R.R. Comm’n, 767 S.W.2d 709, 710
(Tex. 1989).
       The court of appeals rightly noted that our rules allow for a
remand instead of rendition in some circumstances. See 716 S.W.3d at
769 (citing TEX. R. APP. P. 43.3). But it misunderstood the rule to confer
“broad discretion” to remand the case for a new trial without first
considering rendition points. See id. at 770. As we have explained in a
similar context, ordering a new trial necessarily undercuts judicial
economy. See City of Fort Worth v. Pippen, 439 S.W.2d 660, 668 (Tex.

       4 Of course, this mandatory order of operations governs only after an

appellate court has answered “yes” to the threshold inquiry presented in every
appeal: is our jurisdiction secure? See, e.g., Rush Truck Ctrs. of Tex., L.P. v.
Sayre, 718 S.W.3d 233, 237 (Tex. 2025) (“Jurisdiction always comes first.”).




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1969) (considering “the problems of judicial administration” caused by a
remand for a new trial after years of litigation). But where ordering a
new trial also undoes a jury verdict and requires that a new jury be
empaneled, the decision is especially grave. See In re Rudolph Auto.,
LLC, 674 S.W.3d 289, 302 (Tex. 2023) (“[D]isregarding a jury’s verdict
is an unusually serious act that imperils a constitutional value of
immense importance—the authority of a jury.”).
      This    Court’s   precedents       demonstrate   that   there   are
circumstances in which an appellate court may determine that rendition
would be warranted but nevertheless remand for further development
in the interest of justice. But those cases are few and far between—and
they are almost always cases in which the governing law changed during
the life of the case. See FieldTurf, 642 S.W.3d at 836 (noting change in
the law as the “most compelling case” for a remand in the interest of
justice (quoting Carowest Land, Ltd. v. City of New Braunfels, 615
S.W.3d 156, 158 (Tex. 2020))).
      Recent cases illustrate this. In Gill v. Hill, this Court held that
the court of appeals properly affirmed a summary judgment, but we
nevertheless remanded to the trial court “based on intervening
developments in the controlling law” that clarified the relevant burden
of proof and admissible evidence. 688 S.W.3d 863, 871–72 (Tex. 2024).
We observed that a remand served the interest of justice because these
developments—two opinions of this Court “crucial to [the] analysis,” id.
at 866—likely would have influenced the parties’ motion practice at the
summary-judgment stage. Id. at 872. And in Rogers v. Bagley, although
we held that the plaintiff was required to serve an expert report to avoid




                                     7
dismissal, we remanded to allow another opportunity to meet the
requirement because our decision “substantially clarified” a “novel
issue” about which the plaintiff reasonably may have been confused.
623 S.W.3d 343, 357–58 (Tex. 2021).
      The principle justifying a remand—rather than rendition—in
these cases is that a party should not be penalized for failing to
anticipate a change in the governing legal principles during the life of
his case.   But there was no such change here.       Rather, relying on
FieldTurf, the court of appeals reasoned that it could bypass the
rendition points altogether because it identified an error that, in its
view, may have prevented the full development and presentation of the
evidence. 716 S.W.3d at 769–70 (citing FieldTurf, 642 S.W.3d at 836).
It explained: “Platinum appear[ed] to have relied on the spoliation
instruction when determining which evidence to present to the jury, and
it may have presented less evidence than it otherwise would have
without the trial court’s error.”   Id. at 770.    Accordingly, without
addressing any of the other appellate issues raised, the court of appeals
exercised what it described as its “broad discretion to remand this case
for further proceedings.” Id.
      The court of appeals’ rationale does not withstand scrutiny. The
court’s belief that a spoliation instruction may have caused Platinum to
refrain from offering evidence in support of its damages case does not
relieve the appellate court of its duty to first consider issues that may
require rendition. See, e.g., FieldTurf, 642 S.W.3d at 836 (“[C]ourts of
appeals . . . should consider [rendition] issues before ordering a
remand.”). Our rules of procedure require appellate courts to afford as




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much relief as possible, and “courts of appeals are not at liberty to
disregard them.” Bradleys’ Elec., 995 S.W.2d at 677; see also Huynh,
694 S.W.3d at 690 (“[T]hese arguments . . . must be addressed first
because they would provide greater relief.”). “[T]his Court has long
required that dispositive issues must be considered and resolved and
that a judgment moving the case to the greatest degree of finality must
be rendered.” Pool, 124 S.W.3d at 201.
      Rather than examine rendition points first, the court of appeals
here limited its analysis to the spoliation instruction before ordering a
new trial.    Had it addressed other rendition challenges before
remanding the case, its analysis may have obviated the need for a new
trial, either entirely or with respect to some parties or issues. Cf. CMH
Homes, Inc. v. Daenen, 15 S.W.3d 97, 99 (Tex. 2000) (sustaining a legal
sufficiency challenge and rendering judgment without considering
venue, which would have required only a remand).
      We recognize that some of our older cases suggest a remand may
be warranted instead of rendition in some cases absent an intervening
change in the governing law. See, e.g., Williams v. Safety Cas. Co., 102
S.W.2d 178, 180 (Tex. 1937) (remanding because the case was “tried
upon the wrong theory” and so “the facts have not been sufficiently
developed to determine with any degree of certainty what judgment
should be rendered”). But these cases do not allow a second chance to
start anew merely because hindsight reveals that a party may—or
should—have offered more or different evidence. See Kissman v. Bendix
Home Sys., Inc., 587 S.W.2d 675, 678 (Tex. 1979) (“The ends of justice




                                   9
do not require a remand in every instance where . . . the evidence was
not fully developed.”).
      Instead, we have remanded in the interest of justice in cases
where the trial court erroneously precluded a party from presenting a
necessary aspect of its case. See, e.g., Williams, 102 S.W.2d at 179–80
(remanding for the development of evidence of good cause because the
parties tried the case upon an erroneous theory). In FieldTurf, for
instance, we cited as an example a case in which the parties tried the
case premised on erroneous summary-judgment orders that relieved one
party of its burden to prove causation and prevented the other party
from proving its defenses. See 642 S.W.3d at 836 (citing Tex. Windstorm
Ins. Ass’n v. Dickinson Indep. Sch. Dist., 561 S.W.3d 263, 280 (Tex.
App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2018, pet. denied)).
      But such examples are rare.        In the typical case, “[a]ll facts
necessary to the determination of the rights of the parties . . . have been
presented and passed on in the trial court,” Yarbrough v. Booher, 174
S.W.2d 47, 49 (Tex. 1943), and the parties have had “ample opportunity”
to produce evidence and present their case, Nat’l Life & Accident Ins.
Co. v. Blagg, 438 S.W.2d 905, 911 (Tex. 1969). In those scenarios, as
here, justice is not served by starting anew merely because hindsight
may reveal flaws in a party’s case. See Pippen, 439 S.W.2d at 667–68
(concluding remand was not appropriate despite the case having been
tried under an incorrect legal theory because the trial court did not
“restrict [the parties’] proof or submission to the jury” and “[t]he record
contain[ed] the testimony of many witnesses and a huge amount of
documentary evidence” presented over the six-week trial).




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      Nothing in this record suggests that the trial court’s ruling on the
spoliation instruction precluded Platinum’s presentation of evidence or
resulted in a record that was not fully developed. As we have frequently
observed, remand is not appropriate in such cases. See FieldTurf, 642
S.W.3d at 836 (“The court of appeals provided no explanation, and we
discern none, for its conclusion that the trial court’s grant of summary
judgment for [the defendant], even if erroneous, affected development or
presentation of the evidence at trial . . . .”); Lone Star Gas Co., 767
S.W.2d at 710 (concluding that the appellate court erred by remanding,
noting that neither party “suggested that the evidence was not fully
developed on this issue in the trial court”); Mobil Oil Corp. v. Frederick,
621 S.W.2d 595, 596 (Tex. 1981) (reversing the appellate court’s decision
to remand and noting that the plaintiff “did not urge that the evidence
was not fully developed or that he had additional evidence to offer on
the question”); Blagg, 438 S.W.2d at 911 (concluding a remand was not
warranted and noting that there was no contention that the evidence
had not been fully developed); Jackson v. Ewton, 411 S.W.2d 715, 719
(Tex. 1967) (reversing the court of appeals’ decision to remand and
noting that neither party argued in the trial court or their briefs that
the case “had not been fully developed”).
      This is not one of the rare cases in which the error identified by
the court of appeals—the spoliation instruction—prevented that court
from being able to render a judgment if it had determined that the
rendition points were meritorious. The case was on file for nearly five
years before trial. During that time, Platinum retained a damages
expert but decided not to offer his opinions at trial. Copper Creek claims




                                    11
that Platinum also declined to depose any of the allegedly diverted
workers, subpoena the residential projects’ owners to help determine the
number of workers on site at a given time, or use bank statements it
unearthed in discovery. Nothing in the record supports a conclusion
that Platinum would have offered different or additional damages
evidence but for the trial court’s decision to submit a spoliation
instruction. On the contrary, Platinum repeatedly told the jury that no
other damages evidence was available due to the covert nature of the
theft coupled with spoliation. And even if additional damages evidence
was available, the spoliation instruction did not preclude Platinum from
presenting it at trial. On this record, the court of appeals’ rationale for
remanding the case for a new trial afforded an unjustified second bite at
the apple—it did not serve the interest of justice.
       We note in closing that embracing the required order of
operations—rendition points first—is not aimless rule-following.
Particularly after a jury trial, thorough appellate review of the case as
a whole facilitates a robust harm analysis, should one prove necessary.
This is, of course, because a harm analysis requires consideration of “the
entire record of the case as a whole.” Horton v. Kan. City S. Ry. Co., 692
S.W.3d 112, 138 (Tex. 2024); see also In re Est. of Poe, 648 S.W.3d 277,
291–92 (Tex. 2022) (reviewing an erroneous jury instruction for harm by
examining the evidence, examinations, and closing argument); U-Haul
Int’l, Inc. v. Waldrip, 380 S.W.3d 118, 136 (Tex. 2012) (“[W]e must
evaluate the entire case from voir dire to closing argument, considering
the evidence as a whole, the strength or weakness of the case, and the
verdict.”).




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          Thus, even assuming the court of appeals correctly concluded that
the trial court erred in submitting the spoliation instruction—an issue
we do not decide—its harm analysis should have been broader in scope.
At a minimum, the court should have addressed factors pointing against
its conclusion that the spoliation instruction was harmful as well as
those that supported its conclusion.
                              III. Conclusion
          The court of appeals erred in concluding that a spoliation
instruction was reversible error warranting a new trial without first
considering appellate points that, if sustained, would have resulted in
rendition. And its analysis regarding the harm caused by the spoliation
instruction fell short because it did not assess the record as a whole. We
reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand the case to that
court. See TEX. R. APP. P. 53.4; First Bank v. Brumitt, 519 S.W.3d 95,
112 (Tex. 2017) (holding that when issues are briefed in the court of
appeals but not decided there, Rule 53.4 permits this Court to remand
those issues to the court of appeals, even when no cross-petition has been
filed).



                                           Rebeca A. Huddle
                                           Justice

OPINION DELIVERED: April 17, 2026




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