Opinion ID: 1394023
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the court's writing

Text: The Court's view that the return of service of the commissioners' hearing notice is analogous to a return of citation in an ordinary judicial proceeding turns Texas' condemnation jurisprudence on its head. Although the Court recognizes that condemnation proceedings are special in character, 65 S.W.3d at 640-42, it summarily concludes that because the commissioners issue the notice, and because a person competent to testify executed the return, the return must be taken as prima facie evidence of proper service. The Court reasons that, in both an ordinary judicial proceeding and a condemnation proceeding, service is performed at the State's direction and authorization; therefore, the return of service in both instances should be treated the same. But this conclusion ignores that the State is a party in a condemnation suit, not the judiciary overseeing the action. And such a conclusion disregards that here, the State's employee, not an uninterested party, served the notice. Additionally, the Court improperly relies on Rule 21a to support its contention that such return of service should be prima facie evidence of service. Rule 21a expressly provides that it governs how court filings other than the citation to be served upon the filing of a cause of action shall be served. TEX.R. CIV. P. 21a. Further, Rule 21a is entirely different from section 21.016 of the Property Code. This is because it explicitly advises parties about how they may ensure proper service. Moreover, Rule 21a is specifically designed to facilitate how parties must serve pleadings after the parties have been served with citation and are already before the court. TEX.R. CIV. P. 21a. Further, the Court cites no authority, legal or otherwise, for the proposition that `competent to testify' insures that a properly executed return can replace live testimony, for it could not do so if the person completing the return were not competent to testify to the circumstances under which the notice was served. 65 S.W.3d at 643. But just because Kelly may be competent to testify, does not make her return prima facie proof of service. As previously discussed, competent to testify refers to whether a person can give testimony about a certain matter in a proceeding. See TEX.R. EVID. 601, 602; Loper, 404 S.W.2d at 305; Strickland Transp. Co., 403 S.W.2d at 195. As a result, section 21.016's requiring that a person competent to testify effect service supports our concluding that the State must offer testimony from the person with personal knowledge about service, not just the return itself, to prove notice was duly served. Finally, the Court opines that there are no obvious policy reasons for requiring live testimony about service and that such a requirement could provoke an explosion of jurisdictional challenges because the condemnee may believe the State cannot produce the person who served the notice. 65 S.W.3d at 643. But the Court's myopic view of public policy causes it to miss the obvious policy reason behind treating the return here differently than an ordinary return of citation; that is, condemnation proceedings involve a constitutional taking. Additionally, the Court's statement simply adopts the oft-made cry, as the State makes here, that the sky will fall if this Court does not change existing law. For over one-hundred years, our condemnation law has required that the State prove that the statute's procedural requirements, including proper notice, were met. See Kunze, 262 S.W.2d at 951; Parker, 19 S.W. at 519; McIntyre, 13 S.W. at 1028; Davis, 139 S.W.2d at 640. Further, since Rotello and Baird issued in 1982 and 1978, respectively, I have found no other published condemnation cases in which the court had to determine if the State proved jurisdiction because it solely relied on the return, or because it failed to offer testimony from the party who served notice. Thus, for at least twenty years, there has been a dearth of condemnation cases involving jurisdictional pleas based on faulty notice of service.