Opinion ID: 1681687
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Right of the State to Supersedeas

Text: It is asserted by the relators that Article 279a [1] and 2276 [2] do not authorize the State to supersede a judgment of a trial court. It is said that to construe such articles as allowing a supersedeas by the State without giving a bond would render the statutes unconstitutional under the due process clauses of the state and federal constitutions. It is also pointed out that certain articles of the Revised Statutes relating to the right of a governmental entity or department to appeal without giving bond specifically mention supersedeas bonds as well as cost bonds. See Article 1174 relating to cities and Article 2072a relating to the Banking Department. Article 2276 reads as follows: Neither the State of Texas, nor any county in the State of Texas, nor the Railroad Commission of Texas, nor the head of any department of the State of Texas, prosecuting or defending in any action in their official capacity, shall be required to give bond on any appeal or writ of error taken by it, or either of them, in any civil case. Executors, administrators and guardians appointed by the courts of this State shall not be required to give bond on any appeal or writ of error taken by them in their fiduciary capacity. In Railroad Commission of Texas v. Roberts, supra, it was held that: The effect of notice of appeal by and on behalf of the Railroad Commission was to supersede the final judgment entered by the 126th District Court. In Inman v. Texas Land & Mortgage Company, Tex.Civ.App., 74 S.W.2d 124, no wr. hist. (1934) the Court stated that: Rev.St. Art. 2276, provides that a guardian appointed by the courts of this state shall not be required to give bond on any appeal or writ of error taken by him in his fiduciary capacity. It is further held that, when a guardian, as such, has appealed by giving the required notices and filing the record in the reviewing court, the appeal suspends the execution of the judgment or order appealed from without the necessity of filing a supersedeas bond. 21 Tex.Jur. 368, § 106, 370, § 107, and authorities cited. Similarly in Wallace v. Adams, Tex.Civ. App., 243 S.W. 572, wr. dis., 1922, it was said that: The state may appeal without bond, so may guardians and administrators; yet the judgments from which such appeals are prosecuted are automatically suspended without any specific statutory directions that such shall be the result. While these decisions by the Courts of Civil Appeals are not binding upon this Court, the holdings made by such Courts are in accord with the plain unequivocal wording of the statutes and the Rules of Civil Procedure relating to supersedeas. Rule 364 makes only one requirement as a prerequisite for a supersedeas and that is the filing of a bond. It is stated that, An appellant desiring to suspend the execution of the judgment may do so by giving a good and sufficient bond.   . The statute provides that the State shall not be required to give bond on any appeal or writ of error taken by it    in any civil case. We see nothing in this exemption statute which is repugnant to any constitutional provision. The Legislature could have provided that any judgment of a trial court should remain in effect until final disposition of the cause by an appellate court of last resort. It did not so provide, but on the contrary prescribed that a final judgment of a trial court could be suspended by supersedeas. It is true that if the Texas law is enforced as to relators and it should thereafter be determined that the federal law had exclusive application, such relators could not recover damages or indemnity against the State. The State by the very nature of its political organization cannot give bond nor expend money without Legislative approbation, but this circumstance does not operate to deprive the State of the right of supersedeas. No one would seriously question the right of the State of Texas to regulate the manufacture and sale of intoxicants within its borders. Such regulations may at times entail hardship. Administrators may make mistakes, but hardships and mistakes are incidental to each and every law enforcement effort by human beings. The Legislature was well within its constitutional boundaries in providing that the State and the heads of its departments are exempt from giving bond when they elect to supersede a judgment of a trial court. The Asserted Immunity of the Trial Court's Temporary Injunction or Stay Order from Control by the Court of Civil Appeals When the State's right to supersedeas is recognized, there can be little doubt as to the power of the Court of Civil Appeals to forbid enforcement of the trial court's temporary order when an appeal has been perfected to the appellate court from a final judgment. As above pointed out the temporary order is in substantially the same terms as the perpetual injunction. It is based upon no independent equity. The same considerations that support the perpetual injunction likewise support the temporary order. The purpose of the temporary order was to prevent a supersedeas of the perpetual injunction. It would operate to restrain the Administrator from attempting to enforce the state's regulatory liquor control laws as to relators until final disposition of this cause by the Court of last resort. It may be that litigants' substantive rights would be better protected by allowing enforcement of a trial court's judgment pending appeal. Decisions of trial judges are usually free from error. It is arguable that in the greater number of cases the ends of justice would be better served by making their judgments fully effective until they are reversed or set aside. Perhaps it would follow that supersedeas should not be allowed at all, or that it would be allowed only at the trial court's discretion, or that it should be allowed only when the party ultimately prevailing would have some redress by recourse against an indemnity bond. However, when and how supersedeas should be allowed is a policy question peculiarly within the legislative sphere and the Legislature has determined that the State and certain political subdivisions thereof may supersede judgments of trial courts. In Yett v. Cook, 115 Tex. 175, 268 S.W. 715 (1925) this Court considered a temporary injunction having for its purpose the enforcing of a writ of mandamus which had been superseded pending appeal. The temporary order was characterized as being absolutely void. This Court said that: [T]he injunction was applied for for the purpose of rendering ineffective the appeal and supersedeas which might be taken as against the judgment awarding the peremptory mandamus, and its purpose and effect was simply an attempt to nullify the rights of the relators granted them by the statute permitting them to supersede the mandamus judgment. It is a rule of general application that when an appeal is perfected to the Court of Civil Appeals, the latter Court (subject to the right of the trial court to grant a motion for new trial in term time, Bergman v. West, Tex.Civ.App., 262 S.W. 2d 435, no wr. hist., 1953; Cude v. Sanderson, Tex.Civ.App., 235 S.W.2d 927, no wr. hist., 1951, and absent statutory exception), acquires plenary exclusive jurisdiction over the entire controversy. Thompson v. Kelley, 100 Tex. 536, 101 S.W. 1074 (1907), Whaley Farm Corporation v. Bieloh, Tex.Civ.App., 9 S.W.2d 273, original proceeding (1928), 3 Tex.Jur.2d 598, Appeal and ErrorCivil Cases § 340. Similarly, when an application for writ of error is filed in this Court, our jurisdiction, which is likewise exclusive in nature, attaches to the cause. Johnson v. Sovereign Camp, W.O.W., 125 Tex. 329, 83 S.W.2d 605 (1935). After an appeal is perfected from a final appealable judgment, the Court of Civil Appeals is expressly authorized to issue writs of mandamus and all other writs necessary to enforce its jurisdiction. Article 5, § 6, Constitution of Texas, Vernon's Ann.St., Article 1823, Appellate Procedure in Texas, § 1-1. The writ of prohibition has been issued by the Court of Civil Appeals to protect its jurisdiction, and, in our opinion, this Court is not authorized to exercise its original jurisdiction to disturb the prohibition order. [3] In McDowell, District Judge v. Hightower, Chief Justice et al., 111 Tex. 585, 242 S.W. 753 (1922), it appeared that McDowell, as judge of the 60th District Court, had removed T. H. Garner from the office of Sheriff of Jefferson County. Garner appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Ninth Supreme Judicial District and gave a supersedeas bond. The Court of Civil Appeals on application of Garner issued an injunction against Judge McDowell restraining him from interfering with Garner's discharge of his duties as sheriff of Jefferson County. Judge McDowell then sought a mandamus from this Court ordering the Court of Civil Appeals to vacate its order above mentioned. In denying the application for mandamus this Court said: Any action in disregard of a supersedeas is contempt of the jurisdiction of the court in which an appeal, with supersedeas, is pending. 3 C.J. 1327. It is doing no more than protecting its own jurisdiction for the court to inquire into and prevent such acts as would be in defiance of the effect of the supersedeas. It cannot, therefore, be doubted that the Beaumont Court of Civil Appeals was authorized to consider and determine the right of Garner to continue in office during the pendency of his appeal, and to protect and enforce that right, if affirmed, in the exercise of the court's power, under article 1592 (now article 1823) of Vernon's Sayles' Texas Civil Statutes, to issue all writs necessary to enforce its jurisdiction. Having jurisdiction to hear and determine the application of Garner for the enforcement of his asserted right, in and to the subject-matter of the removal suit, pending the appeal, the action of the Court of Civil Appeals was not void, regardless of the correctness of the court's construction of the statutes relating to a sheriff's suspension or removal from office and relating to appeals. The conclusion that the order of the Court of Civil Appeals cannot be successfully attacked as a nullity precludes the award of any relief to relators in this proceeding. This court is bound by the law as is each and every citizen. The law's behests must be obeyed, if civilized government is to endure. The court has no original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus save such as has been conferred by the Legislature. The Legislature in its grant to the court of original jurisdiction in mandamus cases has expressly provided that in its exercise the writ of mandamus shall issue against any district judge, or Court of Civil Appeals, or judge of a Court of Civil Appeals, or officer of the state government except the Governor, only in accordance with the principles of law regulating such writ. There is no principle of law regulating the issuance of a writ of mandamus longer or better established in this state than that mandamus never lies to control official discretion or to correct mere errors in the exercise of judicial power. The Duty of the Court of Civil Appeals to Exercise its Original Jurisdiction to Prevent a Destruction of the Subject Matter of the Litigation In City of Dallas v. Dixon, Chief Justice et al., Tex.Sup., 365 S.W.2d 919 (1963) [4] this Court held that where the duty was mandatory as distinguished from discretionary and the Court of Civil Appeals had failed to exercise the power vested in it under the provisions of Article 1823, this Court could and would issue a mandamus under Article 1733 directing the Court of Civil Appeals to take action to protect its jurisdiction. As an alternative contention, the relators say that the failure of the Court of Civil Appeals to act and stay the hand of the Administrator will result in a destruction of the subject matter of this litigation so as to render such judgment as may be rendered by the Court of Civil Appeals wholly inoperative and ineffective; that the Court of Civil Appeals should have acted to protect its jurisdiction, and that under authority of the Dixon case, this Court should compel action. We have been cited to no case by this Court in which the issuance of the suggested species of stay order in the teeth of the statute authorizing a supersedeas has been sustained. Whether such a writ could issue in a proper case we need not now determine. It seems that the subject matter of this litigation is the asserted right of relators to operate their business free of state regulation. Relators, however, insist that their business, as heretofore operated by them free of state control, will be destroyed. While the business of relators may be damaged or, as they say, need to be reconstructed after the pending litigation is terminated in their favor (if such be the final result), it is difficult to see that this would destroy the subject matter of the litigation, namely, the asserted right to do business free of state regulation. However that may be, the Administrator has filed a sworn reply herein stating in substance that relators' physical properties will not be destroyed. Should they be required for a while to operate in accordance with state law, the subject matter of the litigation would not be destroyed. At most, a fact issue is raised which this Court cannot decide and we cannot say that the Court of Civil Appeals is under a mandatory duty to issue the writ as asserted by relators. Teat v. McGaughey, 85 Tex. 478, 22 S.W. 302 (1893).