Court Opinion

ID: 9763611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:50:39.205199+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:46.688113
License: Public Domain

SAM ROBERTSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Believing that a jurisdictional question prevents us from considering this ease on its merits, I respectfully dissent.
Sun Oil Company (Delaware), intervenor and cross-defendant in the trial court, has moved to dismiss all of the appeals herein for lack of jurisdiction, urging that the district court’s judgment fails to dispose of the plaintiff’s claim for pre-judgment interest. Sun contends this failure to dispose of all of the issues renders the judgment a nonappealable, interlocutory decree.
It is clear “an appeal may be prosecuted only from a final judgment and ... to be final a judgment must dispose of all issues and parties in a case.” North East Independent School District v. Aldridge, 400 S.W.2d 893 (Tex.1966). A summary judgment which does not do so is interlocutory and not appealable unless a severance is ordered by the trial court. Pan American Petroleum Corporation v. Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company, 159 Tex. 550, 324 S.W.2d 200 (1959).
The applicable portion of Tex.R.Civ.P. 166-A(c), concerning “Motion and Proceedings Thereon”, clearly provides:
[T]he judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions and affidavits, if any, on file at the time of the hearing, or filed thereafter and before judgment with permission of the court, show that, except as to the amount of damages, there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the issues as expressly set out in the motion or in an answer or any other response. (Emphasis added)
Plaintiffs’ claim for pre-judgment interest was not severed, nor was it specifically granted by the court. However, the judgment, in “denying and concluding all claims not granted,” at least by implication, denied plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment in that respect.
By this action, the court did not pass upon the merits of plaintiffs’ pre-judgment interest claim. The judgment was rendered *83in response to a motion for summary judgment asserted only by plaintiffs and, therefore, it may be construed only as a refusal of the court to adjudicate that aspect of plaintiffs’ claim as a matter of law. Wright v. Wright, 154 Tex. 138, 274 S.W.2d 670 (1955).
Permitting an appeal from the denial of a motion for summary judgment might, under some circumstances, be advantageous in speeding up the resolution of litigation. However, in my opinion, this is not permissible under the facts of this case. As I view it, the order under review is interlocutory and is not an appealable order within the power and jurisdiction of this court to review. Hall v. City of Austin, 450 S.W.2d 836 (Tex.1970). I would dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction and without prejudice to the rights of any party.