Court Opinion

ID: 9776357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:31:26.550467+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:37.750203
License: Public Domain

CORNELIUS, C.J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully disagree with the majority’s holding that it is error for a judge, under the Court Administration Act’s transfer of cases provision, to sign a judgment when he has not participated in the trial of the case. The holding of the majority in this regard goes against the explicit provisions of Tex. Gov’t Code ANN. § 24.303 (Vernon 1988) and § 74.094(a) (Vernon 1998), as well as the intent of the Legislature in enacting the Court Administration Act. That intent was to allow the judges to exchange benches and to hold court and sign documents for each other when they deem it expedient. The statute in effect “makes the judge of each district court the judge of any other district court in the county.” De Zavala v. Scanlan, 65 S.W.2d 489, 494 (Tex. Comm’n App.1933, judgm’t adopted); Gholson v. Thorn, 597 S.W.2d 568 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1980, no writ). To interpret these statutes as prohibiting a judge who did not try the case from signing a judgment pursuant to the transfer statute would put in question the validity of countless judgments that have been signed in the past in reliance on the statutes and on the holding of the court in Gholson v. Thorn, supra.
Section 74.094(a) of the Government Code explicitly provides that:
A district or statutory county court judge may hear and determine a matter pending in any district or statutory county court in the county regardless of whether the matter is preliminary or final or whether there is a judgment in the matter. The judge may sign a judgment or order in any of the courts regardless of whether the case is transferred. The judgment, order, or action is valid and binding as if the case were pending in the court of the judge who acts in the matter. The authority of this subsection applies to an active, former, or retired judge assigned to a court having jurisdiction as provided by Sub-chapter C.
We should not undermine the validity and reliability of the judgments of our courts by disregarding the plain language of the Court Administration Act.