Court Opinion

ID: 9759427
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:15:52.562622+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:04:08.108856
License: Public Domain

McGEE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the majority’s disposition of this case. I do so reluctantly, however, because I believe Rule 165a of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, as presently written, leads to an unnecessarily harsh result.
Presently, the notice that a litigant or his attorney must receive before the expiration of the 20-day period may be either notice of the court’s intention to dismiss or notice of the actual dismissal. I believe that this case well illustrates the need for an additional device to protect the litigant’s cause of action. In my opinion the administration of justice would be better served if Rule 165a were revised to require both a notice of intention to dismiss the cause and a notice of the dismissal order. Under this revision the rule should be adapted to cover three situations: (1) when the litigant or his attorney receives mailed or actual notice of the signed dismissal order within 20 days of the dismissal, the trial court has 30 days from the day of dismissal to reinstate the case; (2) when the litigant or his attorney does not receive either mailed or actual notice of the signed dismissal order before the expiration of this 20-day period but does receive such notice within six months from the date the dismissal order was signed, the court has jurisdiction to reinstate the case within 30 days after the litigant or his *812attorney received the notice; (3) after the expiration of six months from the date the dismissal order is signed, the court has no jurisdiction to reinstate the case under Rule 165a, and the litigant is relegated to a remedy by bill of review.
In the present case it appears unjust to deny reinstatement of the case. Vogtman timely filed a motion to retain the case on the docket, but this instrument was apparently lost due to clerical error. The case was dismissed on April 12, 1978 and no notice of this dismissal order was mailed to Vogtman or his attorney. Exactly one month later when actual notice of the dismissal order was received, Vogtman immediately filed a motion to reinstate the case. Under these circumstances, Vogtman should have been allowed to reinstate the case under the second of the three above described situations.