Court Opinion

ID: 9777743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:22:14.75831+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:00.559621
License: Public Domain

STEPHEN F. PRESLAR,
Chief Justice, dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. There is no room in our judicial process for this kind of a determination of people’s rights especially in such a serious matter as termination of parental rights. One judge gives the mother custody; less than two years later, based on pleadings of an emergency for the child’s welfare, the judge of that same court changes the custody to the father; that judge apparently disqualified himself, at least he takes no further action in the case; another judge takes over and some six months later, in a lengthy order styled “A Memorandum Opinion,” writes a dissertation on family law and ends up returning custody to the mother; then comes this severance of parental rights of the father, who six months before was found by the first court to be the more fit parent to have custody; in the severance of parental rights case, a third judge gets into the act on two different occasions, appoints a guardian ad litem (later displaced by another guardian ad litem, who appears in the final judgment although there is no order of his appointment) and signs an order allowing substitution of counsel. As indicated in our majority opinion, the real confusion centers on which court considered and determined the various matters involved. The case arose in the 243rd District Court and apparently ended there with an order labeled as the 248rd, but signed by the judge of the 327th District Court, not as “judge presiding in the 243rd”, but simply as “Judge.” Throughout the record the various pleadings and orders are styled *376as being in both the 243rd and the 327th. Some of those originally typed as the 327th are struck out and 243rd is written in. This with no notation of who did it or under what authority or when. Some remain unchanged as being in the 327th. One such order out of the 327th is signed by the “Judge” of the 65th District Court.
As set out in the majority opinion, the district courts in El Paso may hold court for each other, but that does not cover the situation presented by this case. This parent-child relationship case is required by statute to be heard by the court where it orginated. The requirement is jurisdictional by its own terms and has long been zealously so construed by the courts. See: Ex parte Mullins, 414 S.W.2d 455 (Tex.1967) and numerous authorities therein cited. Section 11.05 of the Family Code (Vernon Supp.1984) in part provides:
[W]hen a court acquires jurisdiction of a suit affecting the parent-child relationship, that court retains continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of all parties and matters provided for under this subtitle in connection with the child. No other court of this state has jurisdiction of a suit affecting the parent-child relationship with regard to that child except on transfer as provided in Section 11.06 or 17.06 of this code.
The record does not contain an order transferring this case from the 243rd where it originated. The vitally important matter of jurisdiction is resting on such tenuous grounds as scratched out and written in court designations, orders of one court signed by judges of other courts and resort to a presumption of continuing jurisdiction based on the clerk’s standard transcript designation. The jurisdictional waters are further made muddy by a recitation in the “Memorandum Opinion” by the judge of the 327th reciting:
Jurisdiction of the 327th Family District Court is not in issue nor is it being challenged by any party to the law suit.
This court order declaring jurisdiction should override a clerk’s transcript certificate. If not, then it, combined with the other cited conflicts in the exercise and atempted exercise of jurisdiction by the different courts, calls for Appellant’s Point of Error No. One to be sustained. The severance of parental rights is such a serious matter that it should not stand on the questionable jurisdiction presented by this record. This case should be remanded in the interest of justice for the error cited.
I would further clarify the majority opinion to make sure and to disclaim any misconception that it is holding that any El Paso judge can hear, in his own court, a parent-child matter subject to Section 11.05 of the Family Code. Article 200b, Tex.Rev. Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon Supp.1984) has no application to the real question of jurisdiction in this case. While it provides that a judge of one El Paso court may sit in the court of another judge, it does not alter the jurisdiction provided for by Section 11.05. Article 200b sec. 6, provides:
Neither this Act nor any rule adopted under this Act may be construed to authorize any judge to act in a case of which his own court would not have potential jurisdiction under the constitution and laws of this State.
Jurisdiction of this case was fixed by the statute in the 243rd District Court. Undeniably, a judge of any of the other district courts of El Paso could preside in the 243rd. Unless they were actually presiding in that court, any action taken by the judge of another court in regard to this case would be void. Ex parte Mullins, supra.
[A] court cannot exist without a judge. But a judge is not the court, although frequently the words are used interchangeably. A time when, a place where, and the persons by whom, judicial functions are to be exercised, are essential to complete the idea of a court.
Ex parte Lowery, 518 S.W.2d 897 (Tex.Civ.App.-Beaumont 1975, no writ), quoting the Supreme Court of Indiana.
Because of the questions surrounding the exercise of jurisdiction in this case, I would reverse and remand.