Opinion ID: 2435530
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Right to reinstate cause

Text: Judge Gary reinstated the `original suit' filed by the relators only nine days after he had entered the order granting leave to take the nonsuit. This was done at a time when the acts of the relators had demonstrated beyond question that their motives in seeking the nonsuit were not clean; but, upon the contrary, the evidence of a lack of good faith was then apparent. By that time, the relators had done just what Sheriff Meyer's counsel had predicted they would do  refile in another court and procure his summary suspension  four days before the date set for trial on the merits in the 60th District Court. During the thirty-day period following the entry of an order or judgment the district court retains jurisdiction over the same and may take such action thereon as to the court seems proper. Gulf, C. & S. F. R. Co. v. Muse, 109 Tex. 352, 207 S.W. 897, 4 A.L.R. 613. See also, 4 McDonald, Texas Civil Practice, 1421, § 1803; 33 Tex.Jur.2d 657; Dallas Storage & W. Co. v. Taylor, 124 Tex. 315, 77 S.W.2d 1031, 1034; McEwen v. Harrison, Tex. 345 S.W.2d 706. This Court said in Garza v. Baker, 58 Tex. 483, 487:    In its own peculiar sphere, the district court is itself independent and supreme in its power, and this court has no authority to inquire into or revise its judgments during the period of time when, by its very organization and constitution, it still has the power to alter or to change them. This has been the uniform decision and practice of this court with reference to judgments of the district courts from its first organization.    It is well to remember that the State first invoked the jurisdiction of the 60th District Court. Having done so, it became subject to the usual rules governing litigation in district courts, one of which is Rule 329-b, T.R.C.P., spelling out the inherent jurisdiction which a trial court has over its own judgments, simply placing a time beyond which the control ceases. Counsel for the State knew that at any time during the month following May 22, 1962, the order granting the nonsuit could be revised or set aside  either on the motion of Sheriff Meyer or on the Court's own motion; and, further that the action could be taken with or without good reason. [Muse, supra]. `We might mention, in passing, that nothing is more calculated to provoke protective action in a judge than open and flagrant efforts to evade, avoid, and flaunt prior judgments of the Court. Having made two efforts to suspend Sheriff Meyer, without tender of a witness or proffer of admissible testimony, and during a time when Judge Gary had control over his own order of May 22, 1962. Relators brought on the action from which they now seek relief. Had relators waited until June 23, 1962, another situation might be presented. But, proceeding with unseemly haste, it ill behooves them to complain now because a district court simply invoked its constitutional right to control its own orders so as to protect the jurisdiction of the court. I next contend that the 60th District Court had jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of the cross-action filed by Sheriff Meyer, and that the State was served with Process of the Cross-Action of Meyer. In September, 1961, after the proceeding had been on file for some six months, Sheriff Meyer filed his cross-action seeking affirmative relief against the relators in whose behalf the removal proceedings were then being maintained, W. G. Walley, Jr., their counsel, the State of Texas. Allegations were made to the effect that the Sheriff was being hampered in the discharge of his duties because of the activities of the several persons mentioned. He sought to quiet title to his office together with a permanent injunction against the State and the relators, together with their counsel, to prevent further interference with the performance of his duties. Process was served. The State, through Mr. Walley, filed a motion to quash the citation upon the ground that (a) the State had been improperly served because the service was not in accordance with the Rules of Civil Procedure, none being specified as controlling; (b) the service was not begun in a lawful and correct manner as required by the Rules, again no particular rule being cited; and (c) the service was not completed nor was the return made in a lawful and correct manner as required by some undisclosed rule. The prayer was that the citation be quashed, set aside and held for naught. In an amended motion to quash citation and service thereof filed by Mr. Walley, the State and the other parties defendant to the cross-action reiterated the same contentions previously made. By an order dated November 8, 1961, Judge Gary sustained the motion to quash filed by all of the defendants, including the State, and an order to that effect was so entered. Without filing any answer, the State and the relators, still acting under the guidance of Mr. Walley, filed a second amended original petition, on December 29, 1962. Again, as he had done on the prior occasions, Judge Gary granted leave, fixed an answer date, ordered service of process, and set a date for hearing on the motion to temporarily suspend Sheriff Meyer. The suit for removal of Sheriff Meyer was originally instituted by and in the name of The State of Texas, ex rel, George Dishman, et al as plaintiffs and was filed by W. G. Walley, Jr., Acting District Attorney of Jefferson County, Texas. Mr. Walley was so acting under an appointment issuing out of an ex parte temporary suspension by Judge Harold Clayton in the 136th District Court a few days prior thereto. Service of process on the cross-action was served upon the State by delivering copies thereof to the several relators acting by and through the said defendants. If it be conceded that process might have been insufficient to bring the State of Texas into the litigation (a fact which is not necessary for a decision herein), nevertheless, the State, acting through its counsel, filed not one but two motions to quash the process. In so doing, the State came within the full ambit of Rule 122: If the citation or service thereof is quashed on motion of the defendant, such defendant shall be deemed to have entered his appearance at ten o'clock a. m. on the Monday next after the expiration of twenty (20) days after the day on which the citation or service is quashed, and such defendant shall be deemed to have been duly served so as to require him to appear and answer at that time, and if he fails to do so, judgment by default may be rendered against him. An answer was due by said defendants, including The State of Texas, on December 4, 1961, and at any time thereafter, a default judgment could have been entered. Mr. Franki, in his notes of decisions under the statute antedating Rule 122, cites many decisions by this court for the proposition that any appearance operates as a general appearance, and it is immaterial whether the motion is sustained or overruled. This Court has now promulgated new Rule 120a, providing for special appearances, a statutory move. However, this Rule is not effective until September 1, 1962, and it can scarcely be urged that it may be made retroactively effective, for this case only, to September, 1961. Had the State of Texas ignored the process, but continued to appear in the prosecution of its suit for removal, another question would be presented; and, possibly a different result might be reached. However, having acknowledged the citation, having appeared to move to quash, the State became a party to the cross-action and was before the Court. The cross-action of Sheriff Meyer was within the jurisdiction of the 60th District Court to hear and determine. Remember that the State was required to appear and answer the cross-action filed by Sheriff Meyer on December 4, 1961. It has not filed any pleading, even yet, therein challenging the jurisdiction to hear and determine the cross-action. Now, and before this Court, for the first time, counsel for the State, including Mr. Walley, who has been in the litigation from its inception, make a collateral attack thereon contending: (a) it is wholly independent and unrelated to the main suit, and is in fact a suit against the State of Texas; (b) there is no claim that the State has given its consent to be sued in said cross-action; (c) the same is wholly independent of, unconnected with, and has not grown out of the transaction which constitutes the subject matter of the main suit. The contention that the cross-action is independent and unrelated to the main suit is obviously frivolous and without merit. Counsel for the Sheriff makes it abundantly clear that the State of Texas, acting by the very persons before this Court as relators, has brought many proceedings against him in various courts over the State. He has been indicted in the Criminal District Court of Jefferson County (the indictment being attached to the original petition) and some of the relators were members of that Grand Jury; he has been indicted by the Grand Jury empaneled by the 136th District Court, [2] and members thereof have joined the ranks of relators in proceedings against him; criminal cases against him have been transferred to distant counties without a hearing in his home county. These matters are fully pleaded in the Second Amended Original Answer and Cross-action of Sheriff Meyer. In every instance, The State of Texas has been a party to the proceeding and one or more of the relators in this matter have been involved therein. Many of the instances have occurred since the filing of the cross-action of Sheriff Meyer. Under these circumstances, the opinion of this Court in Anderson, Clayton & Co. v. State, 122 Tex. 530, 62 S.W.2d 107, is peculiarly appropriate. The suit was brought by the State, on the relation of James v. Allred, Attorney General, and James v. Allred, as Attorney General to secure an injunction restraining the defendants from further violation of a penal statute regulating trucks, and the recovery of monetary penalties therefor. An application for a temporary injunction having been denied, by agreement of the State, numerous arrests of employees of Anderson, Clayton were made by State officers. Thereupon, the original defendants, Anderson, Clayton filed a cross-bill and procured a temporary restraining order preventing further arrests, making parties thereto many law enforcement officials as well as the members of the Railroad Commission. Then, the State, when the case was called for trial, took a nonsuit as to its prayer for affirmative relief, and the attention of the trial court was called to the cross-bill. Upon the hearing thereon, a month later, the State then contended that the bill showed upon its face that the relief sought was an injunction against the enforcement of a penal statute without showing a violation of vested property rights. 62 S.W.2d at 107-108. This Court, recognizing the rule and that the State may not be sued without its consent, then said: But the authorities sustain the further rule that, where a state voluntarily files a suit and submits its rights for judicial determination, it will be bound thereby, and the defense will be entitled to plead and prove all matters properly defensive. This includes the right to make any defense by answer or cross-complaint germane to the matter in controversy    (citing cases). The state having invoked the jurisdiction of the district court of Nueces County, a court of competent jurisdiction, for a judicial determination of the question as to whether the defendants were subject to the provisions of the foregoing act and liable for the penalties described therein, it became subject to the same rules as other litigants, except in so far as such rules may be modified in favor of the state by statute or may be inapplicable or unenforceable because of exemptions inherent in sovereignty    (Citing cases). That court [of competent jurisdiction] at the instance of the state acquired jurisdiction of the parties and subject-matter in controversy, and, the defendants having sought affirmative relief in a cross-bill, the jurisdiction of the court cannot afterwards be defeated by the state upon a plea that the cross-petitioners were seeking an injunction against the enforcement of a penal statute.    (62 S.W.2d at p. 110). In Glenn v. McCarty, Tex.Civ.App., 75 S.W.2d 165, no wr. hist., the Court said: A court which is prior in jurisdiction may enjoin the bringing or prosecution of interfering suits in other courts, whenever it appears that conflicts of jurisdiction may arise. This is so even though the second suit is not identical and is not abatable as one for the same purpose between the same parties. Relators rely upon the case of Ex parte Norton, 118 Tex. 581, 17 S.W.2d 1041, by this Court for authority to take a nonsuit. I cannot agree that the Norton case has any application in a case such as the instant case where a cross-action has been filed involving matters related to the removal suit. In the Norton case where no crossaction had been filed, the Court said: Had the court granted relator [Norton] his legal rights and dismissed the divorce suit    he [the Court] would have lost jurisdiction of the divorce proceedings as such, and would have no power or jurisdiction to enter a contempt order for failure of relator to pay alimony, and, had the relator been accorded the right which was absolutely given him under the statute, there would have been absolutely no way to enforce the payment of the back alimony claimed by the wife.    It is my contention that in the present case, if it should appear that there exists some deficiency in Meyer's petition in crossaction, the Court may look to the State's third amended original petition in aid of Meyer's cross-action. In the case of McElyea et al. v. Parker, 125 Tex. 225, 81 S.W. 2d 649 (1935), this Court said: Even though the plaintiff has taken a nonsuit, his petition may be looked to in aid of the defendant's cross-action seeking affirmative relief. Bear in mind that this Court has, upon at least two occasions, spoken of removal suits as being penal in character. We said in State ex rel. Edwards v. Reyna, 160 Tex. 404, 333 S.W.2d 832, 835:    As pointed out by the Court of Civil Appeals, this Court held in 1890 that the ouster statute is `penal in character, and must be construed as though it were one defining a crime and prescribing its punishment.' State ex rel. Hickman v. Alcorn, 78 Tex. 387, 14 S.W. 663, 665. Here, the State, after bringing indictments against Sheriff Meyer, sought his removal; and, in the time preparatory to a final trial, sought his temporary suspension. It was within the power of the State (and Mr. Walley was counsel in both cases), to proceed to trial on the criminal case. Had he been successful in procuring a conviction, permanent removal of Sheriff Meyer would have followed as a matter of law. See Art. 5968, Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes. But, no effort was made to procure a trial in the criminal proceedings, either the original or the subsequent ones. Instead, we find the State, all the while being a party to a proceeding seeking to determine whether or not Sheriff Meyer should be removed from office for official misconduct, with issue joined, persisted in bringing repeated indictments against the sheriff on charges which, if not already within their pleadings in the removal proceedings, were invariably inserted therein shortly after the new indictments. As was said in the Anderson case, supra:    To hold, in the face of this record, that the state could invoke the jurisdiction of a court to determine the issues involved in this suit, and during the pendency of the proceedings in that court could, by its agents, institute criminal proceedings in many instances against the defendants, as was done here, upon the very issue then pending in that court for determination, would be repugnant to the well-settled rules announced in the foregoing opinions.    The fact that Sheriff Meyer would continue to draw his pay during any period of suspension and would not sustain pecuniary injury if he were suspended does not alter my view. Judge Brown, speaking for this court in Terrell v. Greene, 88 Tex. 539, 31 S.W. 631, 634, said:    When an officer is denied the privilege of discharging the functions of his office, he suffers a wrong which cannot be compensated merely by the payment of fees which might have been derived from the discharge of the duties of the office. A legal and moral obligation rests upon every officer to discharge the duties of his office, independently of the question of compensation. Compensation is an important matter to the officer, as furnishing him the means of supporting himself, while engaged in a public duty, but to every honorable man there is more than simple pecuniary compensation; there is that which attends to the faithful discharge of a public duty. The fact that Terrell might have recovered from the county commissions allowed him by law would not prevent him from demanding that he should be lawfully admitted to the discharge of the duties of the office to which the people of Tarrant county had elected him.   Relators in this case have filed against the Sheriff civil proceedings in the 60th District Court embodying the substance of indictments in the Criminal District Court. Failing in the effort to suspend him temporarily, they took another swing with an indictment in the 136th Court which was transferred to the Criminal District Court; and, again, and for the third time, they procured indictments against the Sheriff [ which were immediately transferred to Williamson County and just as promptly remanded by Judge Wood to the 136th Court of Jefferson County ] where they still remain, albeit they are embodied in the removal proceedings. Definitely, the cross-action of Meyer to prevent molestation and harassment presents a justiciable question for consideration by the Court. Certainly, it arises out of the activities of the small group of relators and their counsel. It appears to me to be repugnant to the sense of justice to see such matters continue unchecked. This case is in no manner analagous to State v. Ferguson, 133 Tex. 60, 125 S.W. 2d 272, because there Judge Ferguson had granted injunctions restraining state officials from enforcement of highway restrictive user statutes [not an open question, 125 S.W.2d at p. 274] and the State procured the issuance of the appropriate writs to prevent this interference with law enforcement. We have no such case presented here. On the other hand, ours is one much more similar to the fact situation presented in University of Texas v. Morris, Tex., 344 S.W.2d 426. Three suits with Morris as plaintiff pending in Travis County were consolidated for trial; and, Morris seeking to delay the consolidated trial until he could try a suit in New Mexico against one of the defendants, was enjoined from proceeding in the New Mexico case until the consolidated case had been disposed of. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed (337 S.W.2d 169) and this Court, after carefully considering the matter reinstated the judgment of the trial court.