Court Opinion

ID: 9776407
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:34:12.683822+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:38.465629
License: Public Domain

CALVERT, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I concur in the judgment rendered, but I disagree with one of the Court’s major holdings.
Three events are suggested in the majority opinion as a possible basis for holding this case moot. They are: (1) entry of the trial court’s judgment, while this appeal was pending, vacating the original judgment of conviction; (2) attainment by Carrillo of age 17 while the appeal was pending; and (3) complete satisfaction by Carrillo, pending the appeal, of the sentence imposed upon him by the trial court. The majority has held that the case is not rendered moot by any of the three events. I agree that the case is not made moot by either of the first two events, and I agree generally with the reasons given for those holdings; but I disagree with the holding as to the third event. I would hold that the case is now moot by reason of satisfaction by Carrillo of the trial court’s judgment.
Inasmuch as I agree generally with the majority’s holdings that the first two events do not render the case moot, there is no need to consider those matters further.
In holding that the case is not moot by reason of Carrillo’s satisfaction of the sentence imposed upon him, the majority has abandoned long-standing rules of mootness as announced and applied by this Court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.
When the Court of Criminal Appeals concludes that a case is moot, it dismisses the appeal,1 thus leaving a judgment of conviction in effect with whatever detrimental collateral legal consequences or moral stigma may result therefrom. See Ex Parte Putnam, 456 S.W.2d 916 (Tex. *619Cr.App.1970) (“ . . . appellant is not confined and the question raised by his appeal has become moot. . . . The appeal is ordered dismissed.”); Gates v. State, 332 S.W.2d 333 (Tex.Cr.App.1960) (“The fine has been satisfied, the jail term served, and the term of court ended. This Court has no jurisdiction to entertain such appeal.”); King v. State, 379 S.W.2d 907 (Tex.Cr.App.1964) (“ . . . appellant died . . . after having perfected his appeal. The death of the appellant deprives this court of jurisdiction of the appeal.”).
The Supreme Court of the United States follows the same course of action as our Court of Criminal Appeals, once it has concluded a case is moot. It dismisses the appeal in a moot case, St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U.S. 41, 63 S.Ct. 910, 87 L.Ed. 1199 (1943); but, unlike the Court of Criminal Appeals, it will not hold that a criminal case is moot if a judgment of conviction left standing may continue to have detrimental collateral legal consequences. See Sibron v. New York, 392 U. S. 40, 88 S.Ct. 1889, 20 L.Ed.2d 917 (1968).
When this Court concludes that a case is moot, it sets aside all orders entered in the case by lower courts, including the original judgment, and dismisses the case. This has been the course of action followed by this Court in a moot case for at least 94 years. See Lacoste v. Duffy, 49 Tex. 767 (1878); McWhorter v. Northcutt, 94 Tex. 86, 58 S.W. 720 (1900); Danciger Oil & Refining Co. v. Railroad Commission, 122 Tex. 243, 56 S.W.2d 1075 (1933); Tarpley v. Epperson, 125 Tex. 63, 79 S.W.2d 1081 (1935); Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Priddie, 127 Tex. 629, 95 S.W.2d 1290 (1936); State v. Society for Friendless Children, 130 Tex. 533, 111 S.W.2d 1075 (1938); Iles v. Walker, 132 Tex. 6, 120 S.W.2d 418 (1938); Taylor v. Nealon, 132 Tex. 60, 120 S.W.2d 586 (1938); City of West University Place v. Martin, 132 Tex. 354, 123 S.W.2d 638 (1939); Freeman v. Burrows, 141 Tex. 318, 171 S.W.2d 863 (1943); Texas Foundries v. International Moulders & F. Wkrs., 151 Tex. 239, 248 S.W.2d 460 (1952); Poole v. Giles, 151 Tex. 224, 248 S.W.2d 464 (1952). The course of action followed by this Court in a moot case thus leaves standing no judgment of any kind which can have any detrimental direct or collateral legal consequences. A judgment set aside for mootness is just as effectively denuded of collateral legal consequences as is a judgment set aside because of error committed during trial.
The basis for the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States that it will not decide questions in moot cases is that the Court has no constitutional jurisdiction or power to “decide moot questions or to give advisory opinions which cannot affect the rights of the litigants in the case before it.” St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U.S. 41, 42, 63 S.Ct. 910, 911, 87 L.Ed. 1199 (1943). And see Powell v. McCormack, 395 U.S. 486, note 7 at 496, 89 S.Ct. 1944, 23 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969), and North Carolina v. Rice, 404 U.S. 244, 92 S.Ct. 402, 30 L.Ed.2d 413 (1971). So it is with this Court. Once we find that a juvenile has satisfied a trial court’s delinquency judgment, and we thus set the stage for wiping out the judgment of conviction and dismissing the case for mootness, any holding we may make in deciding questions concerning validity of the trial and judgment will be nothing more nor less than advisory opinions on abstract questions of law which this Court, like the Supreme Court of the United States, is constitutionally precluded from giving. See Firemen’s Ins. Co. of Newark, New Jersey v. Burch, 442 S.W.2d 331 (Tex.1968); United Services Life Insurance Company v. Delaney, 396 S.W.2d 855 (Tex.1965); Morrow v. Corbin, 122 Tex. 553, 62 S.W.2d 641 (1933).
This Court established a realistic test of mootness many years ago in McNeill v. Hubert, 119 Tex. 18, 23 S.W.2d 331, 333 (1930), in this language:
“A case becomes moot when it appears that one seeks to obtain a judgment upon *620some pretended controversy when in reality none exists, or when he seeks judgment upon some matter which, when rendered, for any reason, cannot have any practical legal effect upon a then existing controversy ”
The test thus adopted has virtual universal approval. See 27A Words and Phrases pp. 142-153. This test precludes the majority holding that a juvenile delinquency case in this State is not moot even though the judgment has been fully satisfied. The holding that the trial court erred in permitting amendment of the complaint against Carrillo cannot have any practical direct or collateral legal effect upon the existing controversy, and it is nothing more than an advisory opinion.
The foregoing test of mootness established by this Court is harmonious with the test established and followed by the Supreme Court of the United States. In the very recent case of North Carolina v. Rice, 404 U.S. 244, 92 S.Ct. 402, 30 L.Ed.2d 413-414 (1971), the Supreme Court reemphasized some of its rules for determining mootness. The Court repeated a holding made in Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Haworth, 300 U.S. 227, 240-241, 57 S.Ct. 461, 81 L. Ed. 617 (1937), by saying:
“To be cognizable in a federal court, a suit ‘must be definite and concrete, touching the legal relations of parties having adverse legal interests. It must he a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief through a decree of a conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts.’ ”
Once it is conceded, as surely it must be, that there can be no detrimental direct or collateral legal consequences to the juvenile from a holding of mootness, the only reason suggested by the majority for abandoning our general rule of mootness is that the appellate courts should be allowed to affirm a judgment of conviction so that the juvenile cannot get rid of the judgment and of its collateral legal consequences. I am not persuaded, giving proper weight to all relevant considerations, that the reason justifies the departure. Once a juvenile has paid the penalty of a delinquency judgment and it has thereby accomplished its major purpose, it should be a matter of minor judicial concern that he may escape detrimental collateral legal consequences.
The majority opinion seems to suggest that the Court should decide the question presented in the appeal in order to remove the stigma of the conviction. The Supreme Court of the United States and this Court have both spoken to this question.
In St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U.S. 41, 63 S.Ct. 910, 87 L.Ed. 1199 (1943), the Supreme Court, writing in a criminal case in which the penalty had been fully discharged, and holding the case moot, said: “. . . But the moral stigma of a judgment which no longer affects legal rights does not present a case or controversy for appellate review. Since the case is moot, the writ will be Dismissed."2 Some of the holdings in St. Pierre are explained or questioned in subsequent Supreme Court decisions, but I have found no case in which the Court has held that mere moral stigma of a judgment which has been satisfied will prevent mootness. Indeed, in Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 88 S.Ct. 1889, 20 L.Ed.2d 917 (1968), the Court said that St. Pierre “must be read in light of later cases to mean that a criminal case is moot only if it is shown that there is no possibility that any collateral legal consequences will be imposed on the basis of the challenged conviction.” 392 U.S. 40, 88 S.Ct. 1889.
The majority opinion cites Kemplen v. State of Maryland, 428 F.2d 169 (4th Cir.1970) as reaching a conclusion contrary to that of the Supreme Court in St. Pierre. Two things about that opinion should be noted: (1) It is surely entitled to less weight than the opinion of the Supreme *621Court on an identical question, and (2) as appears from the face of the opinion, the Court was speaking in context of the Federal mootness rule, heretofore noted, of dismissing the appeal and leaving the judgment of conviction standing. That result does not follow under the rule adopted by this Court.
This Court faced the stigma question in Employees Finance Company v. Lathram, 369 S.W.2d 927, 930 (Tex.1963). In that case a jury found that certain finance companies had used unreasonable collection efforts to collect loan's from a borrower, and awarded damages in the sum of $1900. Employees Finance appealed from the judgment, but another of the companies paid and discharged the judgment. Just as in this case, the appellant assigned on appeal only errors which, if sustained, authorized only a reversal and remand for a new trial. We rejected a plea that we should, nevertheless, pass on the questions presented in order to remove the stigma of the judgment, held the case to be moot, and said:
“The judgment properly to be rendered is one reversing the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals in this severed cause and ordering it dismissed. [Cases cited.] The stigma of the judgment in this severed cause is thus removed."
The majority seem to be primarily concerned with affording an adjudged delinquent an opportunity to establish his innocence of delinquency charges. (“If a juvenile’s appeal were made moot by compulsory serving of a relatively short sentence, the alleged errors of.the trial court would be buried; and the juvenile would have no way to exonerate himself by appeal. . It is our view that a minor should have the right to clear himself by appeal. . ” ). Aside from the fact that the majority treat this Court’s rule of mootness as one of the appeal rather than one of the case, a reversal for procedural error cannot “exonerate” or “clear” the juvenile; it can only relieve him of the consequences of the prior judgment of conviction, a result which is fully accomplished by adhering to our practice of mooting the case. Moreover, in cases in which the juvenile has not attained age 17 at the time a reversal for procedural error is ordered, our only authority for directing dismissal of the case is because it has become moot by virtue of satisfaction of the judgment. Under neither the majority approach nor the “mootness” approach can a juvenile be found not guilty of a criminal charge.
Putting all legal concerns and technicalities aside, there is sound practical reason for applying our long-standing rule of mootness in cases of this type. Once the majority opinion in this case becomes the law, courts of civil appeals and this Court will be constantly besieged to rule on a multitude of questions of irregular procedure, erroneous admission or exclusion of evidence, misconduct of counsel or the jury, etc.; and if we must rule on them for reversal, we must also rule on them for affirmance. This, it seems to me, will lead to rather ridiculous situations in which none of such rulings can have any effect whatever on the legal rights of the juvenile. What difference can it possibly make to the juvenile whether his judgment of conviction of crime, completely satisfied, is wiped out because the trial court committed some technical procedural error or because the case is moot? What difference can it possibly make to him if at some future time he is required to state that he was tried and convicted of crime but the judgment was vacated because of mootness, in the one instance, or that it was vacated because of the erroneous receipt of evidence in the other? In neither instance did the judgment ever become final; and so, in neither instance was the juvenile ever adjudged to be guilty of crime or to be delinquent.
I would hold this case moot and would, for that reason, set aside all orders of the lower courts, including the trial court’s judgment of delinquency, and would dismiss the case. Such a holding would be supported by Lee v. State, 425 S.W.2d 698 *622(Tex.Civ.App. — San Antonio 1968, no writ), the only case squarely in point and, I think, correctly decided.
WALKER, J., joins in this concurring opinion.

. Emphasis mine except where otherwise indicated.

. Emphasis the Court’s.