Court Opinion

ID: 9830972
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:40:19.095237+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:28.917239
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In the motion for rehearing appellants call attention to the case of Allen v. Woodward, 239 S. W. 602, recently decided by the Supreme Court, in which the following language is used:
“The act of April 2, 1917, authorizes an ap: peal from a judgment sustaining or overruling a plea of privilege, but it suspends a trial, pending the determination of the appeal, only in the event the judgment appealed from is one sustaining the plea.”
In that case the defendant’s plea of privilege had been overruled. A trial was had, and a judgment rendered against him pending his appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Austin. It does not appear from the record that any judgment had been rendered on that appeal.
The holding above referred to is apparently in conflict with the express views of this court in the original opinion. The writer is of the opinion that it requires a modification of the language used in statiiig the reasons for an affirmance of the judgment in this case. For, whatever may be our views about its correctness, the ruling of the court of last resort becomes the law of the case, and should control the determination of all other cases involving substantially the same issues of law and fact. The conclusion would follow that a judgment rendered in the trial court pending an appeal by the defendant from an order overruling a plea of privilege is not void. A majority of this court, however, have concluded that such a judgment, when based upon default, should be treated as a nullity. But all concur in the conclusion that, where the order overruling the plea of privilege is after-wards reversed, and the plea sustained, as in this case, a default judgment rendered against the defendant on the merits is avoided by the judgment on appeal. The facts of this case distinguish it from that of Allen v. Woodward, and the views of the Supreme Court do not require a reversal of the judgment.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.