Court Opinion

ID: 9619671
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:31:09.305001+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:43.326989
License: Public Domain

TOM GRAY, J.,
dissenting.
I fail to see why we should undermine the legislature and the agreement of the parties. We only interpret a statute when it is ambiguous. Section 35.53(a)(3) expressly and unequivocally states that section 35.53 does not apply to a contract if former section 1.105 of the Code applies. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. § 35.53(a)(3) (Vernon 2002).
There is no dispute that this agreement meets the requirements to make former section 1.105 applicable. See Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. § 1.301 (Vernon Supp. 2004-2005). Drug Test simply wants us to construe that it does not apply.
The purpose of the statutes and their interaction seems very practical to me. A forum-selection clause dispels any confusion about where suits arising from the contract must by brought and defended, which spares litigants the time and expense of pretrial motions to determine the correct forum and conserves judicial resources. In re AIU Ins. Co., 148 S.W.3d 109, 113 (Tex.2004). If both states have a reasonable relationship to the transaction, the parties can agree to resolve their disputes under the contract in either forum, and that part of the agreement need not draw any particular attention to itself by type style or size of print. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. § 1.301 (Vernon Supp. 2004-2005).
But if the parties to an agreement want the law of some other state to apply to the transaction, the law of a state that does not otherwise bear a reasonable relationship to the transaction, then that provision must be conspicuously set out in the agreement. - Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. § 35.53(b) (Vernon 2002). This makes a lot of sense to me. Only when the parties are choosing the law of a state unrelated to the transaction, an agreement the parties can make, must that provision by its type style or size of print, draw attention to itself.
These parties agreed that the law of a state that was reasonably related to their transaction applied. Because former section 1.105 of the Code applies to this contract, section 35.53 does not. I do not know how the legislature could have made it any clearer. I would affirm the trial court’s decision. Because the Court does not, I respectfully dissent.