Court Opinion

ID: 9654989
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:57:09.237912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:15.289145
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
REYNOLDS, Chief Justice.
Amarillo Oil Company has filed a motion for rehearing seeking a reversal of the judgments of this Court and the trial court, and the rendition of judgment in its favor, on the same contentions resolved against it on original submission, but with the addition of one new matter. Further comment on the contentions would not be beneficial, but the new matter requires an address.
In its rehearing motion, Amarillo Oil accurately points out that at the beginning of the fourth paragraph in the majority opinion, it is incorrectly stated that “[t]he trial court granted a temporary injunction to plaintiff but, in an unpublished opinion, we reversed the judgment and dissolved the injunction for want of a complete record.” In the interest of accuracy, it is noted, and now there is made the correction, that as explained in the unpublished opinion, the trial court’s order granting a temporary injunction to Amarillo Oil was affirmed on the theory that no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court was found. Energy-Agri Products, Inc. v. Amarillo Oil Company, No. 07-82-0253-CV (Tex.App.—Amarillo, Dec. 7, 1982, no writ).
The affirmance of the temporary injunction order, Amarillo Oil argues, in effect disposed of the jurisdictional issue by allowing the trial court to proceed with the case. This obtains, the argument continues, because Energy-Agri submitted on the appeal that “as a matter of law, any gas produced from the (Kimberlin) wells is cas-inghead gas ... because the Railroad Commission of Texas has classified [Energy-Agrij’s wells as ‘oil wells’.” Consequently, the argument concludes, this Court’s ruling became the law of the case, binding this Court to the ruling that the trial court had jurisdiction to hear the case. The argument is not well premised.
In the appeal from the order granting the temporary injunction, the focus was only on the question whether the trial court abused its discretion in granting the temporary injunction. As was stated in the opinion, “in order to find an abuse of discretion by the trial court, this court would have to accept as established matters which can only be decided upon the trial upon the merits.” More particularly, the opinion explained that “[t]he question of the construction, validity and effect of Railroad Commission rules is a complex one and should be decided only after a full development of all evidence bearing on the question and consideration of ancillary legal considerations, which was not done at the hearing on application for temporary injunction.”
Obviously, then, the legal question of jurisdiction was not determined on the pri- or appeal. The doctrine of the law of the case does not apply to a question of law that was not decided on a prior appeal, Denny v. White House Lumber Co., 150 S.W.2d 296, 300-01 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1941, writ dism’d judgmt cor.), albeit the question might have been decided. United States v. McClain, 593 F.2d 658, 664 (5th Cir.), cert denied, 444 U.S. 918, 100 S.Ct. *121234, 62 L.Ed.2d 173 (1979). Accordingly, Amarillo Oil’s new contention is overruled.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.
DODSON, J., dissents to the overruling of the motion for rehearing only to the extent that he would grant the motion on the issue of the dismissal of the case for want of jurisdiction.
KEITH, J., not participating.