Objection!

In Burnett v. Aguilar Lozano, the Fifth Court of Appeals at Dallas addressed whether various evidentiary objections to summary judgment evidence are defects of form or substance-a distinction that matters because “deficiencies in form cannot be considered when there was no objection in the trial court,” while “substantive deficiencies pertain to the sufficiency of the evidence and can therefore be challenged and considered for the first time on appeal.”

These are objections to form:

• Hearsay within an affidavit
• Lack of authentication of a document
• Absence of personal knowledge
• Testimony of an interested witness

These are substantive defects:

• Affidavits consisting of nothing more than legal or factual conclusions (i.e., lacking underlying facts to support their conclusions)
• Statements of subjective belief unsupported by other evidence

While parts of the nonmovant’s affidavit were conclusory and thus substantively deficient, the unauthenticated accident report was properly before the court due to the absence of objection, and raised a genuine fact issue on breach of duty. No. 05-24-01503-CV (Tex. App.-Dallas Feb. 12, 2026).