Court Opinion

ID: 9767472
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:20:20.341801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:31.347844
License: Public Domain

ON SECOND MOTION FOR REHEARING
On May 31, 1989, we overruled Jackson’s motion for rehearing in this cause and denied his request to supplement the transcript. We declined to exercise our discretion to allow late filing of certain documents omitted from the transcript because: (1) Jackson failed to show any unusual circumstances warranting suspension of Tex.R.App.P. 54(a) and 50(d), which require an appellant to timely present a sufficient record showing error requiring reversal on appeal; and (2) Jackson failed to detail how the filing of the omitted documents, namely his latest amended petition and response to the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, would alter our decision or better serve the interests of justice.
On June 15, 1989, Jackson filed his second motion for rehearing stating that an unusual circumstance surrounding his omission of documents from the transcript did exist: the clerk’s office had mistakenly *678filed the omitted documents in another case file. Due to this circumstance, and in the interest of justice, we grant Jackson’s motion to supplement the transcript.
Nevertheless, after careful consideration of these documents filed in the transcript as now supplemented—Jackson’s amended petition and response to the motion for summary judgment—we find that his contention that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment against him fails on the merits. A defendant who moves for summary judgment must demonstrate that, as a matter of law, no material issue of fact exists with respect to the plaintiff’s cause of action. Griffin v. Rowden, 654 S.W.2d 435, 435-36 (Tex.1983); Tex.R. Civ.P. 166a. The burden of proof is on the movant, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine fact issue are resolved against him. Roskey v. Texas Health Facilities Commission, 639 S.W.2d 302, 303 (Tex.1982). We find nothing in Jackson’s response to preclude the granting of a summary judgment against him.
Jackson contends that Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 71.031 (Vernon 1986), the Texas Open Forum Act, allows an action for personal injury or death sustained by a foreign citizen in a foreign country to be litigated in a Texas court. He further contends that a state court may not dismiss such an action on the basis of forum non conveniens. Our Texas Supreme Court has noted that the applicability of forum non conveniens to a Section 71.031 cause of action is an open question. Couch v. Chevron International Oil Co., 682 S.W.2d 534 (Tex.1984). We conclude that Jackson’s claim under the Jones Act was properly dismissed because the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear his claim, that federal maritime law preempts state law in the area of injured foreign seamen, and that the applicability of forum non conveniens to the Texas Open Forum Act need only be addressed when the district court has subject matter jurisdiction.
Under the doctrine of forum non conveniens, a court with jurisdiction may, at its discretion, decline to exercise that jurisdiction, and change the venue to a more convenient forum. However, before a court may decline to exercise jurisdiction, it must have jurisdiction in the first place. Due to 46 U.S.C.A.App. § 688(b) (West Supp.1989), the Jones Act, the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear Jackson’s claim because Congress has manifested an intent to preempt state law in the area of injured foreign seamen.
Federal law may preempt state law in three different instances: first, Congress may explicitly express its intent to preempt state law; second, Congress’ intention to displace state law may be inferred generally through the comprehensiveness or pervasiveness of a federal regulatory scheme; and third, even where Congress has not entirely displaced state law, federal law will nevertheless preempt state law when state law conflicts with federal law or when state law interferes with the accomplishment of a Congressional purpose. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n v. Jackson, 820 F.2d 1406, 1411 (5th Cir. 1987).
Here, federal law preempts state law because a conflict exists between the Texas Open Forum Act and the Jones Act. Whereas the Texas Open Forum Act appears to allow Jackson to litigate his claim in a Texas state court, 46 U.S.C.A.App. § 688(b) denies a Jones Act remedy and any other remedies under general maritime law to a foreign seaman in the offshore drilling industry when they are injured in another country’s territorial waters, unless neither the country where the injury occurred nor the seaman’s home country provides any remedy. Camejo v. Ocean Drilling & Exploration, 838 F.2d 1374 (5th Cir.1988). Jackson’s remedies lie in Mexico and Honduras. The applicability of the doctrine of forum non conveniens to the Texas Open Forum Act will necessarily be decided in another context, not in any area of the law where, as here, federal law has preempted state law.
We overrule Jackson’s second motion for rehearing.