Fina Oil & Chemical Co. v. Alonso

• Decision Date: 19 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 13-96-373-CV,13-96-373-CV
• Citation: 941 S.W.2d 287
• Parties: FINA OIL & CHEMICAL CO., et al., Appellants, v. Pedro ALONSO, et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 287

941 S.W.2d 287

FINA OIL & CHEMICAL CO., et al., Appellants, v. Pedro ALONSO, et al., Appellees.

No. 13-96-373-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas Corpus Christi.

Dec. 19, 1996.

Rehearing Overruled Feb. 13, 1997.

Orrin Harrison, III, Sheryl L. Hopkins, Vinson & Elkins, Dallas, J. Craig Youngblood, Catherine B. Smith, J. Harrell Feldt, Benjamin H. Sheppard, Jr., Guy S. Lipe, Andrew McCollam, III, Vinson & Elkins, Houston, Edmundo O. Ramirez, Ellis, Koeneke & Ramirez, McAllen, Bradley C. Poulos, Cantey & Hanger, Fort Worth, J.G. Adami, Jr., Adami & Paisley, Alice, Reynaldo Ortiz, McAllen, Ralph H. Duggins, Mark David Beatty, Shayne D. Moses, C. Matthew Terrell, Cantey & Hanger, Fort Worth, Eduardo R. Rodriguez, Edward Michael Rodriguez, Rodriguez, Colvin & Chaney, Brownsville, for appellants.

Frank E. Weathered, Dunn & Weathered, Corpus Christi, Richard D. Sullivan, Scarromanno & Clegg, L.L.P., Houston, Dan C. Perry, Jon Christian Amberson, San Antonio, Francisco J. Rodriguez, Rodriguez, Prunedo, Tovar, Enriquez & Calvillo, McAllen, Edward G. Aparicio, Aparicio & McLaren, McAllen, Ronald O. Holman, Holman, Robertson, Eldridge, Dallas, Steven A. Fleckman, Fleckman & McGlynn, Austin, Calhoun Bobbitt, Bobbitt & Halter, Jack Paul Leon, San Antonio, for appellees.

Before DORSEY, FEDERICO G. HINOJOSA, Jr. and CHAVEZ, JJ.

OPINION

DORSEY, Justice.

This is an appeal from a temporary injunction that was modified by the issuing court while this appeal was pending. The issue is whether the court could properly enjoin the appellants from filing other suits involving the same oil and gas leases at issue in the present case. We hold the injunction was proper and affirm.

The genesis of this appeal are three actions by royalty owners against the producers of various mineral leases filed in different district courts in Hidalgo County, Texas. It devolved into a struggle as to which of two district courts, the 139th or the 370th, would hear the cases. We conditionally granted mandamus in Pedro Alonso et al. v. The Honorable Micaela Alvarez, Number 13-96-319-CV, ordering the judge of the 139th District Court to sever and return related causes to the 370th District Court. We held that the two district courts could not, absent agreement of the judges or parties, unilaterally transfer cases from one to another.

Consistent with our opinion, the judge of the 370th District Court modified his prior injunction, which prohibited the parties from attempting to interfere with the 370th's jurisdiction over these cases. Fina Oil & Chemical Company and other defendants appeal by seven points of error. Tenneco Oil Company and Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company raise eight points of error. We affirm.

Procedural History

This case involves three lawsuits filed in three different district courts in Hidalgo County. In the first suit, Republic Royalty Company sued Shell Western E & P, Inc., et al., in the 139th District Court. ¹ In the second suit, Pedro Alonso, Jr., et al., sued Fina Oil & Chemical Company, et al., in the 370th District Court. In the third suit, Pedro Alonso, Jr., et al., sued Shell Oil Company, et al., in the 93rd District Court of Hidalgo County. ² All three actions involved the computation of royalties under mineral leases in lands in Hidalgo County, Texas.

The plaintiffs in the three suits filed a motion to consolidate in the 370th District Court, and Judge Noe Gonzalez, the presiding judge of that court, granted the motion. This order transferred and consolidated the three lawsuits into one suit in his court.

On June 21, 1996, the defendants filed a motion to transfer in the 139th District Court, requesting that Judge Alvarez transfer the consolidated cases from the 370th District Court to her court. The plaintiffs responded and moved for a temporary restraining order and injunction in the 370th District Court, seeking to enjoin the defendants and their attorneys from presenting, appearing at, offering evidence at, or attending the motion for transfer set for June 28, 1996 before Judge Alvarez. Judge Gonzalez signed the TRO on June 27, 1996. On that same day, Judge Alvarez signed an order of transfer which transferred the consolidated cases to the 139th District Court.

The Alonso plaintiffs then sought mandamus relief against Judge Alvarez complaining of her transfer order. We granted leave to file and eventually conditionally granted relief, and in doing so held that neither court had authority to interfere in the cases assigned to the other absent agreement.

While the mandamus was pending, Judge Gonzalez granted a temporary injunction that prevented the defendants from: 1) presenting, appearing at, offering evidence at, or attending any hearing regarding Consolidated Cause No. C-2016-95-G before Judge Alvarez; 2) requesting, filing, appearing at, or offering evidence at any hearing on any motion including but not limited to motions to transfer, sever, or consolidate any matters in Consolidated Cause No. C-2016-95-G pending in the 370th District Court whether or not the cause number is styled as the consolidated cause number or appears as Cause Nos. C-3299-95-B or C-5771-94-C in any other Texas district court or before any other judge in Hidalgo County purporting to sit in and for the 370th District Court without the prior written consent of Judge Noe Gonzalez; 3) or filing any additional suit in any Texas district court against any of the parties in Cause No. C-2016-95-G (whether styled under the consolidated cause number or under Cause Nos. C-3299-95-B or C-5771-94-C) involving any matters concerning the four leases which are the subject of the litigation in Cause No. C-2016-95-G.

In the Alonso mandamus, we held that Judge Gonzalez's transfer of the Republic Royalty case from the 139th to the 370th District Court amounted to an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, we concluded that Judge Alvarez was justified in transferring the consolidated suit back to her court in order to correct the abuse. However, she should have retained only the lawsuit originally filed in her court. We stated that in the absence of agreement between the parties or the two courts competing for jurisdiction over the cases, the present lawsuits must remain in the courts in which they were originally filed. We conditionally granted a writ of mandamus directing Judge Alvarez to sever and return to the 370th District Court the lawsuits that were not originally filed in the 139th District Court. We issued this opinion on August 29, 1996.

In response to our opinion and the defendant's motion to dissolve his injunction, Judge Gonzalez modified his injunction omitting any prohibitions as to the Republic Royalty suit pending in the 139th.. The court also ordered the temporary injunction to remain in effect as to the Alonso cases, which had been transferred back to his 370th District Court. It is this modified injunction that is the subject of this appeal.

Discussion

By points one and two, Fina asserts that the 370th District Court erred and abused its discretion in hearing a request for and granting injunctive relief in the face of a valid transfer order which transferred jurisdiction over the parties and the consolidated cases to the 139th District Court. Fina argues that Judge Alvarez's transfer order signed on June 27, 1996 transferred the consolidated cases from the 370th District Court to the 139th District Court. The transfer divested the 370th of its jurisdiction over the parties or the consolidated cases at the time Judge Gonzalez signed the Original Injunction on July 10, 1996.

The court in which suit was first filed acquires dominant jurisdiction to the exclusion of other coordinate courts. Curtis v. Gibbs, 511 S.W.2d 263, 267 (Tex.1974). In the instant case, Republic filed the first suit in the 139th District Court; therefore, that court had dominant jurisdiction. See Curtis, 511 S.W.2d at 267. The principle of dominant jurisdiction in the first court dictates that no one transfer the case arbitrarily after random assignment to a particular court. Republic Royalty Co. v. Evins, 931 S.W.2d 338, 342 (Tex.App.--Corpus Christi, n.w.h.).

On June 27, 1996, Judge Alvarez signed the order transferring the consolidated cases to the 139th District Court. When Judge Gonzalez signed the Original Injunction on July 10, 1996, the consolidated cases were no longer in his court. Therefore, he did not have jurisdiction to enter that order. However, when Judge Alvarez severed and returned the Alonso cases to the 370th District Court, Judge Gonzalez acquired dominant jurisdiction over them. Accordingly, he had jurisdiction to issue the Modified Injunction on October 1, 1996. This appeal concerns the Modified Injunction order. We overrule points one and...