Opinion ID: 1353943
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Right to Further Appeal to the Court of Appeals

Text: Here, because the district court lost jurisdiction over the appeal after ten days passed, the court of appeals held that it too lacked jurisdiction and dismissed the appeal. 83 S.W.3d at 168. Garza argues that the court of appeals' interpreting section 11.67 to prohibit it from exercising jurisdiction over the appeal violates his constitutional rights of due process and due course of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and article I, section 19 of the Texas Constitution. He also contends that this interpretation violates the open courts and separation of powers provisions of the Texas Constitution article I, section 13 and article II, section 1. Garza points out that he complied with all statutory requisites for the appeal to the district court and should not be penalized because that court failed to timely render judgment. In Spears and Walker, both mandamus proceedings, whether the district court's failure to timely render and sign an appealable judgment precluded the licensee's right to a further appeal in the court of appeals was not squarely before the Court. Walker, 529 S.W.2d at 762-63; Spears, 524 S.W.2d at 292. Instead, the Court had to determine whether mandamus should issue to preclude the district court from making rulings and rendering judgment outside the ten-day period. However, upon reviewing this issue now squarely before the Court, I agree that prohibiting a party from exercising its statutory right to a further appeal if a district court fails to render judgment within the ten-day period creates a constitutional concern. The United States Supreme Court has held that, though due process does not require a state to provide appellate review, when a state does establish an appellate right, it cannot be granted to some litigants and capriciously or arbitrarily denied to others without violating the Equal Protection Clause. Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56, 77, 92 S.Ct. 862, 31 L.Ed.2d 36 (1972). Section 11.67 does not expressly describe how a party may appeal to the court of appeals when the district court does not render and sign a judgment within the ten days. But this Court must interpret statutes in manner that renders them constitutional. Tex. Gov't Code § 311.021(1); Proctor v. Andrews, 972 S.W.2d 729, 735 (Tex.1998). Consequently, I would hold that a district court's failure to render and sign a judgment within the ten-day period does not prohibit a party from appealing to the court of appeals. Consistent with Spears, I would hold that the administrative decision deemed affirmed by operation of law is not only final and enforceable, but it also becomes the appealable signed final judgment necessary to perfect an appeal to the court of appeals. See Spears, 524 S.W.2d at 292; see also Tex.R.App. P. 26.1. Therefore, the time in which a license applicant has to appeal to the court of appeals would run from the date the administrative decision is deemed affirmed because the district court failed to timely render and sign a judgment. This resolution best reconciles the express legislative intent that we literally construe the provision limiting the district court's time to decide an appeal with the equally express legislative intent that a party have a right to appeal to the court of appeals. See Tex. Alco. Bev.Code §§ 11.67(b), 61.34(b); Spears, 524 S.W.2d at 292. Here, the jurisprudence existing when the ten-day period expired in Garza's appeal to the district court required that the administrative decision became final and enforceable by operation of law. Spears, 524 S.W.2d at 292. Moreover, under existing law, the judgment the district court signed after the ten-day period expired was void. Spears, 524 S.W.2d at 292. The legal proposition that I advocate, although consistent with our jurisprudence and the legislative intent that section 11.67 expresses, was not evident when Garza's appeal was pending in the district court or when the court of appeals dismissed the appeal. And, if Garza had the benefit of this rule when the ten-day period expired in the district court, he would have known that the administrative decision that was deemed affirmed under Spears also became the signed final judgment for purposes of perfecting an appeal. Thus, under my proposed rule, Garza would have known how to timely perfect an appeal to the court of appeals. Therefore, I would remand this case to the district court in the interest of justice. See Tex.R.App. P. 60.3; Exxon Corp. v. Tidwell, 867 S.W.2d 19, 23 (Tex.1993). For the reasons discussed above, the district court would lack jurisdiction to make any rulings in this case, and the remand to the district court here would be only for purposes of starting the timetable for Garza to perfect an appeal, if any, to the court of appeals. In other words, consistent with the rule I advocate, upon remand Garza could appeal to the court of appeals the administrative decision deemed affirmed and deemed the signed final judgment by operation of law. The remand would become effective, and the appellate time table would begin to run, after the time for filing any motions for rehearing in this Court expires. See Tex.R.App. P. 64.