Court Opinion

ID: 9678882
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:34:54.600671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:08.632957
License: Public Domain

ORDER ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
The Court has before it Mark A Cantu’s Emergency Motion for Stay of Commitment Order, for Reconsideration and Rehearing of Relator’s Motion for Contempt, and Supplemental Response to Relator’s Motion for Contempt. We have stayed the commitment order in order to consider the remainder of the motions.
The Court has been informed that the controversy between Juan Lopez Butrón, Luis Enrique Cortinas Villarreal, their attorney, Robert W. Johnson, Jr. on the one hand, and Mark A. Cantu, on the other hand, has been compromised and settled. In view of the settlement, Cantu now requests that we rehear, reconsider and rescind our findings of contempt and set aside our judgment of contempt.
At the contempt hearing, the Court strongly urged all parties to make one last final attempt at settling this most contentious litigation. The Court welcomes the fact that the parties were able to accomplish this difficult task. The settlement, however, does not excuse Cantu’s actions which led to our finding of contemptuous conduct on his part. The Court is still of the opinion that Cantu violated this Court’s orders and is in contempt of court as set out in this Court’s Judgment of Contempt dated November 12, 1997.
We are a government of laws rather than men. All persons have a legal duty to observe and obey all valid orders of the court. Our laws and rules provide for relief and remedies for those who might disagree with our orders, but until they are overturned by some higher authority, our orders remain in full force and effect and must be obeyed. *494The conduct of anyone who seeks to disobey such orders must be considered on a case by case basis. Cantu’s conduct has been previously explained in the majority and dissenting opinions of our judgment of contempt and it is not necessary that they be rehashed again.
It is therefore the Order of the Court that our order of confinement in the Hidalgo County Jail dated November 12,1997 be, and it is hereby suspended under the following conditions of probation:
1. Mark A. Cantu is ORDERED to enroll in, attend, and complete on Friday, December 12, 1997, from 8:80 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., The Ethics Course, sponsored by the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, to be held in the Texas Law Center, Room 101-102, 1414 Colorado St., Austin, Texas 78711, and to supply this Court with a certificate from the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism certifying that he has satisfactorily completed the above-referenced course.
2. Payment of the fines totaling $1,000.00 and Court costs within 10 days from the date of this Order.
If Mark A. Cantu completes the conditions set out above, the commitment to jail shall be set aside and held for naught; however, if Mark A. Cantu fails to comply with the terms of probation or either of them, we hereby ORDER him to report to the Hidalgo County jail no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 22, 1997, to begin confinement under the terms of this contempt order. In the event that Mark A. Cantu challenges the present order of contempt by application for writ of habeas corpus in the Supreme Court of Texas, we order him released from confinement on his own recognizance pending action by the Supreme Court of Texas on the writ of habeas corpus.
It is further ordered that all costs be adjudged against Mark A. Cantu.
ORDER
On Januaiy 21, 1998, this Court heard the remaining motions for relief in connection with the present original proceedings, including the joint motion to dismiss these proceedings and Robert W. Johnson, Jr.’s objection to that motion and his own motion for rehearing and correction of our prior of November 20,1997.
By that order, we reviewed a prior order holding Mark A. Cantu in contempt and provided additional terms by which Cantu might purge himself of contempt. As a part of our November 20th order we noted that “[t]he Court has been informed that the controversy between Juan Lopez Butrón, Luis Enrique Cortinas Villarreal, their attorney, Robert W. Johnson, Jr. on the one hand, and Mark A. Cantu, on the other hand, has been compromised and settled.”
Robert W. Johnson, Jr. has objected that he was not a party to the settlement or to the other parties’ - “Joint Motion to Dismiss.” Johnson, attorney for Butrón and Villarreal in the underlying proceeding against Cantu in the 138th District Court in Cameron County, had been sued individually by Cantu in the- 93rd District Court of Hidalgo County in the wrongful garnishment action. Accordingly, Johnson contends that the underlying proceedings concerning which this Court granted mandamus relief and later held Cantu in contempt remain as to Johnson and have not been settled or dismissed. While we acknowledge that Johnson is still a party to the underlying litigation in the 93rd District Court, this does not change our November 20th order or convince us to alter the terms by which we allowed Cantu to purge himself of contempt.
By our prior order, we required Mark A. Cantu to complete “The Ethics Course,” sponsored by the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism (“the Texas Center”) and to pay a $1,000 fine as a means of purging himself of our order finding him in contempt and committing him to jail. The Texas Center has informed us that Cantu completed the required course and we are satisfied that he has fulfilled the conditions for purging himself of contempt.
Accordingly, we set aside our prior order of November 12, 1997, committing Mark A. Cantu to jail for contempt of court.
*495All other relief requested by any party in connection with the present original proceedings is hereby denied. Therefore, no further orders will issue from this Court in the present proceedings.