Court Opinion

ID: 9655126
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 19:00:45.792585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:16.198694
License: Public Domain

FRASER, Justice
(concurring).
This writer concurs substantially with the opinion of Associate Justice ABBOTT, of this Court. While not in complete agreement with all the provisions of said opinion, I do believe that, substantially, it is correct, and such belief is based on the following conclusions:
1. The jurisdiction of the various courts of this state, including justice courts, has been carefully set up, and it has been judicially said that such jurisdiction must be such that the court involved is free to act within the limits of its power.
2. It may well be true that the action of the Justice of the Peace may, indirectly or directly, decide a lawsuit involving a sum of money far in excess of that court’s jurisdiction. If this is true, such has come about through no action or fault of this court, and I feel that this court is without power to attempt to remedy such situation, real or anticipated. (See language in Mas-soni case, cited at conclusion of this opinion.) Our powers and duties with reference to injunctions have been adjudicated many times, and I feel that, as an appellate court, we do not have the broad power of remedying what might seem to us an illogical situation. Along this same line, I do not feel we have the power, through in-junctive procedures, to protect other than our own decisions and jurisdiction where the same has been satisfactorily and definitely established. If this situation is illogical and has potential misfortune for either party, it is my opinion that the matter is one invoking more our judicial curiosity than our jurisdictional power. We have no action before us on the part of the Justice Court. He has not acted, other than to permit the case to be filed. If his decision or finding does, indirectly or directly, result in what seems to be an illogical disposition of a liquidated judgment far in excess of the monetary jurisdiction of his court, it is, to my mind, a situation that we had no part in creating, do not have the necessary powers to prevent, and is one which we can only assume might have been, or might be, presented to this court on appeal if tried in a court where appeal to this court is permissible.
Therefore, under the facts before us, I do feel that we are without the necessary power to prohibit the Justice Court from hearing and deciding the case before him. If, by reason of decisions of other courts, the possibility of a legally illogical result might exist, I cannot find authority for this court to anticipate such and remedy, or attempt to remedy or prevent, such possible action. Forman v. Massoni, Tex.Civ. App., 176 S.W.2d 366 (wr. ref.) ; Cleveland v. Ward, 116 Tex. 1, 285 S.W. 1063; Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stat. Art. 1823; Pait v. International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, etc., Tex.Civ.App., 322 S.W.2d 349; Winfrey v. Chandler, 159 Tex. 220, 318 S.W.2d 59. Bybee v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., Tex. 331 S.W.2d 910.