Case Name: John B. Pearson, Jr. v. State of Texas
Court: Supreme Court of Texas
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1958-07-09
Citations: 159 Tex. 66
Docket Number: No. A-6627
Parties: John B. Pearson, Jr. v. State of Texas.
Judges: 
Reporter: Texas Reports
Volume: 159
Pages: 66–78

Head Matter:
John B. Pearson, Jr. v. State of Texas.
No. A-6627.
Decided July 9, 1958.
Rehearing Overruled October 1, 1958.
(315 S.W. 2d Series 935)
Tisinger & Sloan, of Austin, for petitioner.
Will Wilson, Attorney General, James H. Rogers, Assistant Attorney General, for the State, and Robert L. Burns, of Houston, for respondent.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Walker
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is a condemnation proceeding in which neither party filed timely objections to the award of the commissioners. The attempted appeal of the landowner, John B. Pearson, Jr., who is petitioner here, from the judgment entered by the County Judge has been dismissed by the Court of Civil Appeals for want of jurisdiction. 307 S.W. 2d 159. It is our opinion that the intermediate court had no jurisdiction of the appeal, and its judgment of dismissal will accordingly be affirmed.
An account of the events leading up to the appeal is necessary to an understanding of petitioner's argument. The initial statement filed with the county judge names petitioner and Texas Good Roads Association as the owners of the property sought to be condemned. Petitioner appeared at the hearing before the commissioners and waived notice. The Association, which held a lease on the premises, was not served with and did not waive notice or appear at the hearing. After considering the evidence introduced, the commissioners filed their decision with the county judge reciting the appearance of "the defendant (sic) John B. Pearson, Jr., and Texas Good Roads Association by their attorneys of record," that the market value of the land is $46,100.00 and that "such sum is hereby awarded to the defendant."
No objections having been filed within ten days, the amount of the award was deposited in the registry of the court. Petitioner went to the clerk's office for the purpose of withdrawing the money but declined to do so upon being advised that the check would be made payable to him and the Association. Although counsel for the State later filed a statement with the clerk that the money had been deposited subject to petitioner's order, the funds were not withdrawn.
The State then obtained a quitclaim deed from the Association and filed a motion to record the award and make it the judgment of the county court. Petitioner countered with a motion to strike the award and abate the proceeding on three grounds which will be noticed later. At the hearing held by the county judge on these motions, the parties stipulated certain facts and offered the testimony of several witnesses. The State introduced its quitclaim deed, and one of the commissioners testified that no evidence was introduced at their hearing as to the value of the Association's interest in the premises. The judgment from which this appeal is taken was then entered by the county judge. After reciting that the Association was not notified of the commissioners' hearing, that no evidence was offered as to the value of its interest in the premises, and that the commissioners had filed their decision awarding $46,100.00 to petitioner, it decrees that the State recover title to the property from petitioner, that petitioner recover the amount of the award from the State, and that the money deposited with the clerk be paid to petitioner.
Under the provisions of Arts. 1819 and 2249, Vernon's Ann. Texas Civ. Stat., appeals may be taken to the Court of Civil Appeals from final judgments in civil cases of which the district and county courts have or assume jurisdiction. An action to condemn land is a special statutory proceeding, wholly administrative in nature, at least until the commissioners' decision is filed with the county judge. The course which it takes after the filing of their award is governed by Sections 6 and 7 of Art. 3266, Vernon's Ann. Texas Civ. Stat., which read as follows:
"6. If either party be dissatisfied with the decision, such party may within ten days after the same has been filed with the county judge file his objection thereto in writing, setting forth the grounds of his objection, and thereupon the adverse party shall be cited and the cause shall be tried and determined as in other civil causes in the county court.
"7. If no objections to the decision are filed within ten (10) days, the County Judge shall cause said decision to be recorded in the minutes of the County Court, and shall make the same the judgment of the court and issue the necessary process to enforce the same."
By the express terms of Section 6, the filing of timely objections confers jurisdiction upon the county court to hear and determine the issues in the exercise of its judicial powers. It thus is clear that the proceeding becomes a civil case if objections are filed within the prescribed period, and either party has the right to appeal from a final judgment thereafter entered by the county court. Article 3268, Vernon's Ann. Texas Civ. Stat., expressly recognizes the right to appeal "from the decision of the county court," but there is no provision authorizing an appeal from a judgment entered on the award. In the present case neither party complied with the provisions of Section 6 of Art. 3266, and we must decide whether the proceeding, originally administrative in character, may be converted into a judicial action in any other manner.
The parties do not cite and we have not found a decision which can be regarded as squarely in point. A civil case has been defined as "a proceeding in a court of justice by one party against another for the enforcement or protection of a private right or for the redress or prevention of a private wrong." See Lane v. Hewgley, Texas Civ. App., 155 S.W. 348 (no writ.') We have said that a statutory proceeding in which the controversy is not submitted to and determined by the court as a judicial tribunal "is neither a suit at law nor a case in equity" even though the same culminates in a judgment. See Fortune v. Killebrew, 86 Texas 172, 23 S.W. 976, 978. Several of our immediate courts have also expressed the view that a condemnation proceeding becomes a judicial action only when an appeal is taken from the award of the commissioners. See Lewis v. Texas Power & Light Co., Texas Civ. App., 276 S.W. 2d 950 (wr. ref., n.r.e.) ; City of El Paso v. Ward, Texas Civ. App., 213 S.W. 2d 726 (no writ) ; City of Big Spring v. Garlington, Texas Civ. App., 88 S.W. 2d 1095 (no writ) ; Hardy v. City of Throckmorton, 62 S.W. 2d 1104 (no writ). In one case it was pointed out that the timely filing of objections is necessary to remove the proceeding from the effect of the decision of a special tribunal to a regularly constituted court, but the opinion then concludes by saying that "the proceedings do not become an action in the county court in the true sense until such objections are filed or until the time for filing same has expired and the judge is required to enter judgment on the award." Sinclair v. City of Dallas, Texas Civ. App., 44 S.W. 2d 465, 466, (wr. ref.).
A condemnation proceeding is not within the general jurisdiction of the county court as defined by Art. 5, Sec. 16, of the Constitution and Arts. 1949 and 1950, Vernon's Ann. Texas Civ. Stat. The jurisdiction of the court over such matters is special and depends upon the provisions of Art. 3266 quoted above, which were enacted by the Legislature pursuant to its authority under Art. 5, Sec. 22, of the Constitution. See Southern Kansas Ry. Co. of Texas v. Vance, 104 Texas 90, 133 S.W. 1043. The power of the county court as a judicial tribunal in eminent domain proceedings is thus limited to that which has been conferred upon it by statute.
Section 7 of Art. 3266 requires the county judge, if no objections are filed within ten days, to cause the award to be recorded in the minutes and make the same the judgment of the court. No jurisdiction is conferred upon the court to do anything more than accept and adopt the award as its judgment, and this follows by operation of law and the ministerial act of the county judge. There is nothing which the court, as distinguished from the county judge in his administrative capacity, can hear and determine by the exercise of its judicial powers. It seems clear to us, therefore, that an order directing that the award be recorded and making the same the judgment of the court does not constitute a judgment in a civil case, and that there is no right of appeal therefrom. This conclusion is inescapable in view of the provisions of Arts. 3266 and 3268 and is also consistent with our holdings in Parker v. Ft. Worth & D.C. Ry. Co., 84 Texas 333, 19 S.W. 518, and Fortune v. Killebrew, supra. See also Temple v. Riverland Co., Texas Civ. App., 228 S.W. 605 (no writ) and 28 Texas Law Rev. 112.
Petitioner recognizes that a condemnation decree entered strictly in accordance with the award is not appealable. He argues, however, that the judgment entered in this case materially alters the award, and that the county court assumed jurisdiction and the proceeding became a civil case when the judge held a hearing and on the basis of evidence introduced entered an order decreeing that the entire amount of the award be paid to petitioner. While cases may arise in which it appears that the county court has assumed jurisdiction and thereby converted the proceeding into a judicial action, the right of appeal cannot be made to turn upon whether there is a material variance between the award and judgment. Such a rule would be confusing and uncertain in application and at best could afford only limited relief in unusual cases.
The present suit will serve to illustrate the narrow scope of possible appellate review in cases of this character. It is well settled that the jurisdiction of the appellate court as to the merits of a case extends no further than that of the court from which the appeal is taken. See Perkins v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., Texas Com. App., 299 S.W. 213. Petitioner has never complained of a variance between the award and judgment and does not seek to reform the judgment entered by the county judge. He urges a difference between the judgment and award solely as the basis for his argument that the Court of Civil Appeals has jurisdiction of his appeal. The only points presented there raise the same contentions that were urged in his motion argued before the county judge. They are: (1) that neither the commissioners nor the county court acquired jurisdiction of the proceedings because the same were filed by an attorney who is not authorized to institute and prosecute an action in the name of the state: (2) that the commissioners had no jurisdiction and their award is void because the Association was not notified of the hearing; and (3) that the county court had no jurisdiction and its judgment is void because the same was entered at a term subsequent to that during which the award was filed. His prayer is that the judgment of the county court be dismissed and the proceedings abated. The purpose of his appeal is thus to attack the validity of the award, set aside the entire proceedings, and compel the condemning authority to make a new start.
Under the plain provisions of Art. 3266, the County Court as a judicial tribunal had no authority to consider or sustain any of these contentions, and it would have been improper for the Court of Civil Appeals to do so even if petitioner were correct in his argument that the judgment is appealable. If his basic contention were sound, therefore, we could only direct the intermediate court to overrule his points and affirm the condemnation decree. A party appealing from a judgment entered in the absence of proper objections to the award would never be entitled to a review of any question except one relating to a variance between the award and judgment. If the appellate court found that the judgment did not conform to the award, it could only reverse and render the judgment that should have been entered by the county judge.
Cases in which one of the parties is prejudiced by the entry of a j udgment that differs from the award will arise only infrequently, and those in which such a variance is the only question in issue will be even more rare. If the proceedings are regular through the commissioners' decision, a party who is aggrieved by the county judge's refusal to proceed or by the entry of a judgment that does not conform to the award has his remedy by a mandamus proceeding to compel the entry of judgment in accordance with the award. Questions pertaining to irregularities which might render the award or judgment void can be determined in such a proceeding as well as in a direct action to set aside the judgment, but could never be properly considered in an appeal from the judgment. Since the parties thus have an adequate and readily available remedy, we are unwilling to make the distinction urged by petitioner because such a rule would serve almost no purpose except to create uncertainty as to the right of appeal in cases of this kind. We hold instead that when no timely objections to the award are filed, there is no right of appeal from the judgment subsequently entered in the proceedings even though the same does not conform to the award.
The judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals is affirmed.
Opinion delivered July 9, 1958.