Opinion ID: 895218
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fernandez's Pleadings

Text: The Trust contends that Fernandez's pleading of facts supportive of standing vested the district court with subject matter jurisdiction over the Humble Oil bill of review case. We agree. Inherent in a court's jurisdiction is the authority to determine whether it can exercise subject matter jurisdiction over the case, including determining standing. See Houston Mun. Employees Pension Sys. v. Ferrell, 248 S.W.3d 151, 158 (Tex.2007); Camacho v. Samaniego, 831 S.W.2d 804, 809 (Tex. 1992). Standing, which focuses on who may bring an action, is a prerequisite to subject matter jurisdiction. M.D. Anderson Cancer Ctr. v. Novak, 52 S.W.3d 704, 708 (Tex.2001). To have standing to pursue a bill of review, a person generally must have been a party to the prior judgment or have had a then-existing interest or right that was prejudiced by the prior judgment. See, e.g., Rodriguez ex rel. Rodriguez v. EMC Mortg. Corp., 94 S.W.3d 795, 798 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2002, no pet.); Lerma v. Bustillos, 720 S.W.2d 204, 205-06 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1986, no writ). Fernandez contends that, because of her biological relationship to Kenedy, she has an interest in the Kenedy estate that was prejudiced by the 1949 Humble Oil judgment. It has long been the rule that a plaintiff's good faith allegations are used to determine the trial court's jurisdiction. See, e.g., Brannon v. Pac. Employers Ins. Co., 148 Tex. 289, 224 S.W.2d 466, 469 (1949). A court may presume the truth of allegations supportive of standing to determine standing and dispose of litigation through summary judgment. See Tex. Ass'n of Bus. v. Tex. Air Control Bd., 852 S.W.2d 440, 446 (Tex.1993) ([W]hen a Texas appellate court reviews the standing of a party sua sponte, it must construe the petition in favor of the party. . . .); Brown v. Todd, 53 S.W.3d 297, 305 n. 3 (Tex.2001) (Because standing is a component of subject matter jurisdiction, we consider [it] as we would a plea to the jurisdiction, construing the pleadings in favor of the plaintiff.); see also Laidlaw Waste Sys. (Dallas), Inc. v. City of Wilmer, 904 S.W.2d 656, 660 (Tex.1995) (assuming that petitioner had standing to affirm summary judgment against petitioner); O'Quinn v. State Bar of Tex., 763 S.W.2d 397, 403 (Tex.1988) (assuming that party had standing to decide that challenge lacked merit). In this case, Fernandez pled in her bill of review petition in district court that she is Kenedy's non-marital child and, because of that relationship, she is entitled to an intestate inheritance if the district court's 1949 judgment negating intestacy is set aside. For purposes of determining standing, then, the district court could presume that Fernandez is, as she alleges, Kenedy's biological child. The Trust favors such an assumption, and Fernandez, who is hardly in a position to challenge it, made no objection on this basis. [20] We reject Fernandez's peculiar argument that the district court should not have assumed her pleaded basis for standing to be true. The court of appeals believed that employing such a presumption amounts to conferring standing by estoppel. 267 S.W.2d at 81 (citing Tex. Ass'n of Bus., 852 S.W.2d at 443-46). In this case, the Trust did ask the district court to assume paternity for purposes of its summary judgment motion. But, as we have already discussed, Fernandez did not object to that request, and Fernandez's allegations, taken as true, were sufficient to establish standing. We have never said that presuming heirship in these sorts of cases amounts to conferring standing by estoppel or by agreement, or that this situation should depart from the general rule that the plaintiff's good faith allegations are used to determine jurisdiction. We see no reason to alter it now, as such a rule would prevent parties from ever stipulating to facts relating to parentage and would prevent courts from deciding dispositive motions not dependent on parentage (e.g., laches and limitations), without some sort of evidentiary inquiry into heirship claims. See Bland Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Blue, 34 S.W.3d 547, 554 (Tex.2000) (recognizing that plaintiffs do not have to put on their case simply to establish jurisdiction). In this case, we conclude that Fernandez's pleadings conferred standing, regardless of whether the alleged relationship was true or subject to rebuttal on the merits.