A summary of summary judgment procedure –

In a dispute about whether photographs were properly authenticated as summary judgment evidence, the Fifth Court summarized the current state of preservation law after a recent Texas Supreme Court opinion: “To preserve a complaint for appellate review, a party generally must raise the issue in the trial court through a timely request, objection, or motion and the trial court must rule or refuse to rule on the issue. Tex. R. App. P. 33.1(a). The supreme court has specifically noted that, if a summary judgment affidavit suffers from a defect in form, ‘that flaw must be objected to and ruled upon by the trial court for error to be preserved.’ However, if a summary judgment affidavit presents a ‘substantive defect,’ the party may complain about the defect for the first time on appeal and is not subject to the general rules of error preservation. A complete absence of authenticating evidence is a defect in substance. However, a complaint that evidence was not properly authenticated is a defect of form.” Lee v. Global Gaming LSP, No. 05-18-00427-CV (July 31, 2018) (citations omitted, quoting Seim v. Allstate Texas Lloyds, No. 17-0488 (Tex. June 29, 2018).