Court Opinion

ID: 9776717
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:42:52.056751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:41.767333
License: Public Domain

DIES, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
With respect, I dissent. The Texas Unemployment Compensation Act (Art. 5221b-l et seq., V.A.C.S.) does not set the venue in this type of suit.
Art. 1995 reads that “[n]o person who is an inhabitant of this State shall be sued out of the county in which he has his domicile except in the following cases . ” So the effect of the majority opinion is to hold that the State of Texas is domiciled only in Travis County. I agree that this holding is supported by Fitts v. Calvert, 374 S.W.2d 274 (Tex.Civ.App., Fort Worth, 1963, dism.) and Texas Highway Department v. Jarrell, 379 S.W.2d 417 (Tex.Civ.App., Texarkana, 1964, dism.); but I would follow the advice of Martin v. State, 75 S.W.2d 950, 952 (Tex.Civ.App., El Paso, 1934, no writ) wherein it is said:
“There is a difference between the government of a state and the state itself (Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U.S. 270, 5 S.Ct. 903, 962, 29 L.Ed. page 185; Grunert v. Spalding, 104 Wis. 193, 78 N.W. 606) and, therefore, the fixing of the seat of government for the state is not equivalent to fixing its domicile. The domicile of a person is the place in which he has his fixed habitation without any present intention of removing therefrom. 15 Tex.Jur., § 2, pp. 708, 709. The powers of the state are coextensive with its physical boundaries and, as said by the Supreme Court in Wheeler v. State, 8 Tex. 228, ‘it cannot be said of the State, that she resides in a particular county. * * * ’ ”
See also State v. Isbell, 127 Tex. 399, 94 S.W.2d 423 (1936) and Duval County Ranch Company v. Texas Company, 301 S.W.2d 247, 249 (Tex.Civ.App., Austin, 1957, no writ), “. . . the State is not a resident of any particular county, [citing Martin]”
I recognize plaintiff’s precarious position in failing to allege it had permission to sue the State, but this has not yet been raised by the State (although the Assistant Attorney General in oral argument indicated this would later be urged).
So we cannot escape answering the question: Where is Texas domiciled? In my judgment, it is domiciled as much in El Paso and Orange as it is in Austin. I agree with the argument of appellee that the situs of government is in Austin; but situs and domicile are two different concepts.