Surgitek, Inc. v. Adams

• Decision Date: 09 October 1997
• Docket Number: No. 13-97-332-CV,13-97-332-CV
• Citation: 955 S.W.2d 884
• Parties: SURGITEK, INC., Medical Engineering Corporation and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Appellants, v. Sue ADAMS, et al.,Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 884

955 S.W.2d 884

SURGITEK, INC., Medical Engineering Corporation and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Appellants, v. Sue ADAMS, et al.,Appellees.

No. 13-97-332-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas Corpus Christi.

Oct. 9, 1997.

Roger W. Hughes, Adams & Graham, Harlingen, G. Thomas Coghlan, Gayla S. Corley, Lang, Ladon, Green, Coghlan, San Antonio, for Appellants.

Michael T. Gallagher, J. Scott Nabers, Sharon S. McCally, Houston, Gallagher, Lewis & Downey, Frank Costilla, Costilla & Stapleton, Brownsville, Eugene A. Cook, Warren W. Harris, Deanne M. Noel, Gael Plauche, Bracewell & Patterson, Houston, for Appellees.

Before SEERDEN, C.J., and FEDERICO G. HINOJOSA, Jr. and RODRIGUEZ, JJ.

OPINION

RODRIGUEZ, Justice.

This is an accelerated appeal pursuant to TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.003(c) (Vernon Supp.1997). ¹ Appellants, three of forty-five defendants below, claim the trial court erred in denying their motion to transfer venue and erred in permitting the joinder of plaintiffs who are unable to independently establish their right to bring suit in Cameron County.

This litigation involves seventy-five plaintiffs who brought suit in Cameron County, Texas asserting negligence causes of action against forty-two doctors and three manufacturers of silicone gel breast implants. The plaintiffs' ages span more than thirty years and the reasons for being implanted are primarily cosmetic or restorative. Two plaintiffs are residents of Cameron County, sixty-two are residents of other Texas counties, and eleven are residents of states other than Texas.

Appellants filed a motion to transfer venue in which they questioned the propriety of joinder and specifically denied Cameron County was a county of proper venue as (1) none of the events or omissions giving rise to any alleged claim occurred in Cameron County, (2) none of the appellants have their principal place of business in Cameron County, and (3) none of the plaintiffs except Sue Adams and Blanca Molina resided in Cameron County at the time their causes of action accrued. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.002 (Vernon Supp.1997). Appellants requested that the trial court transfer the improperly joined plaintiffs to the counties in which all or a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to the alleged claims occurred; to the district court of Dallas County, the county in which Bristol-Myers Squibb Company maintains its principal Texas office; or to the counties in which the individual plaintiffs resided at the time their causes of action accrued.

Following a non-evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied appellant's motion to transfer venue. No findings of fact or conclusions of law were requested or filed. We affirm.

Appellants' ability to bring this interlocutory appeal is premised entirely on section 15.003. However, based on appellants' asserted points of error, we are initially confronted with a question concerning our jurisdiction as granted by the legislature in section 15.003.

When construing a statute, our primary goal is to ascertain and give effect to the legislature's intent. Sorokolit v. Rhodes, 889 S.W.2d 239, 241 (Tex.1994). To determine legislative intent, we focus first on the literal text of the statute because this is the only definitive evidence of what the legislators intended when the statute was enacted into law. Crimmins v. Lowry, 691 S.W.2d 582, 584 (Tex.1985); TEX. CONST . art. II, § 1. In determining the meaning of statutory language, "consideration should be given to the entire act, its nature and object, and the consequences that would follow from each construction." Sayre v. Mullins, 681 S.W.2d 25, 27 (Tex.1984); City of Harlingen v. Avila, 942 S.W.2d 49, 51 (Tex.App.--Corpus Christi 1997, writ denied). However, when we construe a statute that establishes appellate jurisdiction, we are not at liberty to expand our jurisdiction beyond that conferred by the legislature. Masonite Corp. v. Garcia, 951 S.W.2d 812, 816 (Tex.App.--San Antonio 1997, n.w.h.). ²

With these principles to guide us, we turn to the language of the statute. Section 15.003 is not a venue statute; it is a joinder statute. The statute allows an interlocutory appeal for one specific purpose: to "contest the decision of the trial court allowing or denying intervention or joinder." TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.003(c) (Vernon Supp.1997) (emphasis added). Moreover, the statute limits this Court's inquiry to a single question: "whether joinder or intervention is proper." TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.003(c)(1) (Vernon Supp.1997) (emphasis added). The language used clearly indicates the legislature's intent that section 15.003(c) was narrowly drafted to permit a litigant to obtain speedy appellate review of a trial court's decision with respect to whether certain plaintiffs may properly join in a suit.

By appellants' third point of error ³ they are not contesting joinder. Instead, they are contesting a decision regarding transfer of venue, a decision that is not subject to interlocutory appeal. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.064(a) (Vernon 1986).

Because we conclude section 15.003 does not authorize an interlocutory appeal of the trial court's denial of a motion to transfer venue, we are without jurisdiction to consider appellants' third point of error.

The trial court's permitting joinder of all plaintiffs is the subject of appellants' first and second points of error. More specifically, appellants complain of the trial court's action in allowing joinder of those plaintiffs who cannot independently establish all of the requisite elements of section 15.003. These elements are set out in subsection (a) of the statute which reads as follows:

(a) In a suit where more than one plaintiff is joined each plaintiff must, independently of any other plaintiff, establish proper venue. Any person who is unable to establish proper venue may not join or maintain venue for the suit as a plaintiff unless the person, independently of any other plaintiff, establishes that:

(1) joinder or intervention in the suit is proper under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure;

(2) maintaining venue in the county of suit does not unfairly prejudice another party to the suit;

(3) there is an essential need to have the person's claim tried in the county in which the suit is pending; and

(4) the county in which the suit is pending is a fair and convenient venue for the suit and the persons against whom the suit is brought.

TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.003(a) (Vernon Supp.1997).

Plaintiffs have asserted a single cross-point in which they claim that, to the extent appellants' points of error request review of the trial court's order implicitly finding that plaintiffs have met the requirements set out in section 15.003(a)(2)--(4) to establish venue, we lack jurisdiction. The basis of plaintiffs' argument is that because a trial court's venue determinations are not reviewable by interlocutory appeal, TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.064 (Vernon 1986), and inasmuch as subsections (a)(2)--(a)(4) discuss the establishment of venue, not joinder, jurisdiction is lacking. We disagree.

Section 15.003(a) provides that a person "who is unable to establish proper venue may not join or maintain venue ..." unless the person can meet the four criteria set out in subsections (a)(1)--(a)(4). Subsection (c) permits an interlocutory appeal by

"[a]ny person seeking intervention or joinder, who is unable to independently establish proper venue, or a party opposing intervention or joinder of such a person...."

TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 15.003(c) (Vernon Supp.1997). Applying proper grammatical construction, TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 311.011(a) (Vernon 1988), the phrase "of such a person" relates back to "a person seeking ... joinder who is unable to independently establish proper venue...." We must presume the legislature intended for the entire statute to be effective. TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 311.021(2) (Vernon 1988). If we interpret section 15.003(c) in the limited manner advocated by plaintiffs, subsections (a)(2)--(a)(4) would be meaningless to a trial court attempting to determine proper joinder.

We overrule plaintiffs' sole cross-point and assume jurisdiction to consider the merits of appellants' points of error one and two.

In this case of first impression, our initial inquiry concerns the applicable standard of review. Appellants claim a de novo review is proper, while the plaintiffs urge that factual sufficiency is the proper standard.

Section 15.003(c)(1) specifically provides that "[t]he court of appeals shall determine whether the joinder or intervention is proper based on an independent determination from the record and not under either an abuse of discretion or substantial evidence standard." We therefore do not review the trial court's determination as to whether joinder was proper under an abuse of discretion standard, nor do we merely weigh the evidence to determine whether it is sufficiently substantial to support that determination.

Whether joinder is proper under section 15.003(a) is not a simple matter of applying a clear legal definition or standard to a narrow set of facts. Rather, it involves a series of legal tests which evaluate needs, prejudice, and convenience to the parties. The ultimate determination of whether joinder is proper thus depends upon both (1) factual determinations concerning the nature of the underlying lawsuit and the situation of the various parties before the trial court, and (2) application of the legal tests of section 15.003(a) to those facts.

With regard to the underlying factual determinations, there is no indication in the statute that the legislature intended for this Court to make independent fact findings about the nature of the underlying lawsuit and the situation of the parties. We must still defer to the trial court's determination of these matters and may not substitute our findings...