Opinion ID: 895143
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The interlocutory appeal was designed to remove frivolous cases from the judicial system at the earliest opportunity.

Text: It is clear, then, that when the Legislature gave health care providers authority to appeal an interlocutory order that denies a motion to dismiss, it did so to quickly dispose of frivolous cases that increase the cost of insurance and drive doctors away from Texas. The question here is whether the Court's holding today furthers or frustrates that purpose. See TEX. GOV'T CODE § 311.023 (providing that courts may consider the object sought to be attained and the consequences of a particular construction). The Court and I agree that may, as it applies to interlocutory appeals under section 51.014(a)(9), `creates authority or grants permission or a power.' 289 S.W.3d at 318 (quoting TEX. GOV'T CODE § 311.016(1)). If the claimant were proposing that a defendant had no right to an interlocutory appeal, we would reject it unanimously. The Court says its holding would allow Hernandez to pursue a right given him by the Legislature, suggesting that the approach I favor would not. To the contrary, the statute clearly permits a provider to pursue the right if it so chooses. The question is not whether the defendant has the right, but whether the statute contemplates its immediate exercise. Our treatment of this issue must therefore be sensitive to the law's underlying rationale. Those reasons vary according to the nature of the interlocutory appeals section 51.014 permits. As the Court notes, the oldest interlocutory appeal, that from an order creating or dissolving a temporary injunction, must either be taken immediately or lost, because a temporary injunction, by its very nature, ceases to exist when the controversy has proceeded to final judgment. See Janus Films, Inc. v. City of Fort Worth, 163 Tex. 616, 358 S.W.2d 589, 589 (1962) (The purpose of a temporary injunction is to preserve the status quo of the subject matter of the suit pending a final trial of the case on its merits.). Accordingly, even though section 51.014 says a party may appeal a temporary injunction, the opportunity to review that order is lost if not taken immediately. Courts of appeals have held that orders appointing receivers may be challenged by interlocutory appeal only. Long v. Spencer, 137 S.W.3d 923, 926 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2004, no pet.) (holding parties must challenge appointment of receiver by interlocutory appeal or complaint is waived); Sclafani v. Sclafani 870 S.W.2d 608, 611 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist] 1993, writ denied); Benningfield v. Benningfield, 155 S.W.2d 827, 827(Tex.Civ.App.-Austin 1941, no writ); McFarlane v. Greenameyer, 199 S.W. 304, 305 (Tex.Civ.App.-Galveston 1917, no writ). As one court explained: [Permitting appeal from final judgment] would mean that a party could rightfully attempt to set aside an order of receivership in an appeal regardless of how long ago the receivership order was entered. The setting aside of an order of receivership has the effect of nullifying all intervening acts of the receiver ... or, at least, of raising serious questions concerning the validity of such intervening acts. Allowing the vacation of a receivership at any time after its creation would work undue hardship on third parties who have dealt in good faith with the receiver. Furthermore, an unlimited time to appeal would mean that the order of receivership would never be beyond challenge, and thus never attain the finality upon which the parties, the receiver, and those who have transacted with the receiver, are entitled to depend. Sclafani, 870 S.W.2d at 611 (internal citation omitted). Again, section 51.014 says a party may appeal these orders, but courts recognize that, in these circumstances, review cannot await final judgment. This is not unlike the rule governing interlocutory appeals in probate proceedings, in which [t]he need to review 'controlling, intermediate decisions before an error can harm later phases of the proceeding' justifies an exception to the one final judgment rule. De Ayala v. Mackie, 193 S.W.3d 575, 578 (Tex. 2006) (quoting Logan v. McDaniel, 21 S.W.3d 683, 688 (Tex.App.-Austin 2000, pet. denied)). Similarly, the right to complain of a trial court's denial of a media defendant's motion for summary judgment on certain defamation claims may well be lost if not challenged by interlocutory appeal, see TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 51.014(a)(6), as it is settled in both state and federal court that the denial of a motion for summary judgment may not be challenged on appeal from final judgment following trial, see Johnson v. Sawyer, 120 F.3d 1307, 1316 (5th Cir.1997) (We have held repeatedly that orders denying summary judgment are not reviewable on appeal where final judgment adverse to the movant is rendered on the basis of a subsequent full trial on the merits.); Glaros v. H.H. Robertson Co., 797 F.2d 1564, 1573 (Fed.Cir.1986); Ackermann v. Vordenbaum, 403 S.W.2d 362, 365 (Tex.1966) (holding that to allow an appeal of the denial of a motion for summary judgment following a subsequent dismissal or full trial on the merits could result in judgments which would be patently unjust). We have noted that: It would seem incongruous for a court, upon finding that a judgment following a full and complete conventional trial should be reversed because of the admission of improper evidence, to then review the action of a trial court in overruling a summary judgment, particularly if it appears from the evidence adduced upon the conventional trial that there were genuine issues of fact in the case even though the summary judgment record might not reflect this situation because of an incomplete development of the facts. Id. at 365 (noting that many of the same concerns would arise if the final judgment appealed from was one of dismissal). The Fifth Circuit has explained the justification for this rule: It makes no sense whatever to reverse a judgment on the verdict where the trial evidence was sufficient merely because at summary judgment it was not. As we noted in Woods v. Robb, 171 F.2d 539 (5th Cir.1948): The saving of time and expense is the purpose to be attained by a summary judgment in a proper case. When in due course the final trial is had on the merits it becomes the best test of the rights of the movant. If he wins on trial he has his judgment. If he loses on a fair trial it shows that he ought not to have any judgment. Id. at 541. For all of these reasons, we are firmly convinced that the better course is to decline to review the district court's denial of motions for summary judgment when the case comes to us on the movant's appeal following adverse judgment after full trial on the merits. Black v. J.I. Case Co., 22 F.3d 568, 572 (5th Cir.1994) (footnote omitted). By contrast, cases involving jurisdictional matters generally follow a different rule. We have implicitly concluded that the failure to pursue the interlocutory appeal given to governmental entities whose immunity-based pleas to the jurisdiction are denied does not prevent them from raising the same issue on appeal from a final judgment. See, e.g., State ex rel. State Dep't of Highways and Pub. Transp. v. Gonzalez, 82 S.W.3d 322, 331 (Tex.2002) (concluding, on appeal from final judgment, that governmental immunity barred claim and rendering take-nothing judgment despite trial court's interlocutory denial of plea to the jurisdiction on that ground); Fed. Sign v. Tex. S. Univ., 951 S.W.2d 401, 412 (Tex.1997) (same); see also TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE § 51.014(a)(8). This rule would presumably extend to interlocutory orders involving the trial court's personal jurisdiction over a party. The prevailing view is that an order granting or denying a special appearance may be challenged after final judgment. See GJP, Inc. v. Ghosh, 251 S.W.3d 854, 866-67 (Tex.App.-Austin 2008, no pet.) (holding that appellate jurisdiction to review special appearance rulings was not limited solely to interlocutory appeal authorized by section 51.014(a)(7)); Canyon (Australia) Pty., Ltd. v. Maersk Contractors, Pty., Ltd., No. 08-00-00248-CV, 2002 WL 997738, at  (Tex.App.-El Paso May 16, 2002, pet. denied) (concluding that interlocutory appeal was not mandatory and trial court's special appearance grant could be reviewed on appeal from final judgment); but see Matis v. Golden, 228 S.W.3d 301, 305 (Tex.App.-Waco 2007, no pet.) (concluding that challenge to order denying special appearance, raised for the first time on appeal from final judgment, was untimely because parties failed to bring an interlocutory appeal); see also TEX.R. CIV. P. 120a(1) (providing for special appearances to object to jurisdiction over the person or property of the defendant on the ground that such party or property is not amenable to process issued by the courts of this State). And while we have not considered the issue, federal courts have concluded that a party's failure to seek interlocutory review of an order granting or denying class certification does not bar the same complaint on final judgment. See, e.g., Gutierrez v. Johnson & Johnson, 523 F.3d 187, 199 n. 12 (3d Cir.2008) (concluding that plaintiffs may appeal the denial of class certification once a final judgment has been entered); Asher v. Baxter Int'l, Inc., 505 F.3d 736, 740 (7th Cir.2007) (noting that if Rule 23(f)'s brief opportunity for interlocutory review passes, the entitlement to review at the end of the case remains); Jenkins v. BellSouth Corp., 491 F.3d 1288, 1292 (11th Cir.2007); Carpenter v. Boeing Co., 456 F.3d 1183, 1192 (10th Cir.2006); Gary v. Sheahan, 188 F.3d 891, 892 (7th Cir. 1999); see also Compaq Computer Corp. v. Lapray, 135 S.W.3d 657, 664 n. 6 (Tex. 2004) (noting that federal decisions and authorities interpreting current federal class action requirements are persuasive authority in Texas courts). The federal interlocutory review provision was adopted to address countervailing concerns: An order denying certification may confront the plaintiff with a situation in which the only sure path to appellate review is by proceeding to final judgment on the merits of an individual claim that, standing alone, is far smaller than the costs of certification. An order granting certification, on the other hand, may force a defendant to settle rather than incur the costs of defending a class action and run the risk of potentially ruinous liability. These concerns can be met at low cost by establishing in the court of appeals a discretionary power to grant interlocutory review in cases that show appeal-worthy certification issues. FED.R.CIV.P. 23 advisory committee's note (1998). [2] III