Court Opinion

ID: 9641555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:34:31.197247+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:38.277041
License: Public Domain

HOWELL, Justice,
concurring.
I concur.
These reporting fees were incurred in connection with federal court litigation. This writer would hold that former article 320c only applies to cost incurred in the state courts of Texas.
The majority states that an attorney “may become individually liable if he ... impliedly assumes [his client’s] liability” (maj. op. 304) (emphasis added). At best, the statement is inapplicable to the case at bar. At worst, it is misleading. While the statement may be correct in some other context, it appears to this writer that former article 320c clearly forbids a court from holding that a lawyer impliedly contracted to directly and personally pay court costs incurred in the course of litigation on behalf of a client.
In sum, viewed in light of the purpose of its enactment, the statute should be construed to read:
An attorney who is not a party to a civil proceeding is not liable for payment [out of his own resources] of [taxable] costs incurred [in the Texas court system] by a *305party to the proceeding [unless the attorney expressly contracts that he will pay out of his own resources].