Court Opinion

ID: 9682524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:12:37.547317+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:39.898432
License: Public Domain

DUGGAN, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision which declines to recognize the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) as a quasi-judicial body. Lack of established precedent gives this Court few rigid guidelines upon which to base our decision, and affords us the opportunity to recognize that the quasi-judicial concept, for desirable policy reasons, is broad enough to cover the budgetary hearing operations of the H-GAC.
The function, power and authority of the H-GAC are set forth in the majority opinion and need no further clarification. While the majority concludes that H-GAC’s decisions are “preliminary in nature,” and that H-GAC is not the “final arbiter” in the budgetary process, I would underscore the majority’s observation that H-GAC’s budgetary recommendations are adopted by the federal funding agencies involved in approximately 90% of the applications considered. Interested parties therefore know from past history that their views must be persuasively conveyed to H-GAC’s executive committee if such views are to be effectuated. The public’s best interest is served in such a situation by candid expression of fact or belief without fear of retribution.
The Courts’ posture should be one of promoting open interaction between the public and the H-GAC. Imposition of quasi-judicial immunity would serve to benefit the public at a minimal risk to the H-GAC, its members, and those members of the interested public who choose to appear before it. While this suit is brought by a member of the public because of words spoken by a *699member of the H-GAC board, roles could well be reversed, such that a citizen speaker could be sued and held liable for comments addressed to H-GAC executive committee members. By the majority ruling, which applies only a qualified privilege to speakers at H-GAC executive committee meetings, speakers as well as executive committee members can potentially be deterred from full and frank expression of their viewpoints by the prospect of having to defend lawsuits. Only a final judicial ruling negating “malice” on the part of a speaker would ultimately uphold his right to speak without fear of litigation.
I believe the facts support an opposite conclusion from that expressed by the majority. The H-GAC should be held to be a quasi-judicial body, and statements made in public hearings before its executive committee should be absolutely privileged.