Court Opinion

ID: 9771061
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:30:04.421382+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:24.137819
License: Public Domain

OSBORN, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. First it must be noted that in Pogue v. Duncan, 753 S.W.2d 255 (Tex.App.—Tyler 1988), the trial court granted a petition for writ of mandamus and awarded attorney’s fees. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed on the grounds that attorney’s fees are not recoverable *156against a county under Tex.Civ.PRAc. & Rem. Code Ann. § 38.001 (Vernon 1986). The Texas Supreme Court reversed on the basis that the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act expressly provides for an award of costs and reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees. Duncan v. Pogue, 759 S.W.2d 435 (Tex.1988). We must conclude that either sovereign immunity was not raised or both courts chose to totally ignore the issue. We believe it was not raised, and the case has no precedential value on the issue now before the Court.
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Duncan v. Pogue was mentioned in the Court’s opinion in Rodeheaver v. Steigerwald, 807 S.W.2d 790 (Tex.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1991, writ denied), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 112 S.Ct. 1167, 117 L.Ed.2d 414 (1992). Justice Sears wrote:
Attorney's fees are not recoverable against a governmental entity under the Declaratory Judgment Act.
Id. at 793.
In Waugh v. City of Dallas, 814 S.W.2d 492 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1991, writ denied), the Duncan v. Pogue decision was again relied upon as a basis for an award of attorney’s fees. In that case, Justice Thomas wrote:
We agree with the holding of the Houston First District Court of Appeals that section 37.009 contains no express or implied waiver of sovereign immunity. City of Houston [v. Lee] 762 S.W.2d [180] at 188 [Tex.App.1988].
Twice, Courts of Appeals have considered the Duncan holding and twice they have announced it did not authorize the award of attorney’s fees in a Declaratory Judgments Act case where sovereign immunity was raised. And twice, the Texas Supreme Court denied a writ seeking to have those holdings overturned. As the majority notes, other courts of appeals have reached those same results. I believe this Court should also. I dissent to our failure to follow the holdings of those Texas cases that have passed on this issue where sovereign immunity has been timely raised.