Fulcher v. Texas Board of Public Accountancy

532 F. Supp. 683, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10979
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1982
DocketCiv. A. No. B-80-214
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 532 F. Supp. 683 (Fulcher v. Texas Board of Public Accountancy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fulcher v. Texas Board of Public Accountancy, 532 F. Supp. 683, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10979 (S.D. Tex. 1982).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DeANDA, District Judge.

The Plaintiff, William L. Fulcher, Jr., seeks a declaration that the Texas Public Accountancy Act is facially violative of the United States Constitution, and violative as applied in the form of an injunction issued by the 107th Judicial District Court of Cameron County, Texas, from the enforcement [684]*684of which he also seeks injunctive relief. The Defendant, Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, moved that the cause be dismissed, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6), because barred by res judicata by virtue of prior state court decisions involving this dispute. , This Court considers the Defendant’s motion one for summary judgment, and it is GRANTED.

The Defendant Board in 1972 in Texas District Court sued to enjoin Plaintiff Fulcher from using the term “accountant” in representing his services to the public. The trial court ruled for then-defendant Fulcher on the basis of the unconstitutionality of the Texas Public Accountancy Act. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed, holding the Act constitutional on its face and as applied in the injunction at issue. Texas State Board of Public Accountancy v. W. L. Fulcher, 515 S.W.2d 950, 956 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1974, writ ref’d n. r. e.).

The State Board later brought a second suit seeking a broader injunction against Fulcher’s using “public accounting offices,” “accounting offices,” “accounting practitioner,” “account,” “accounting,” “accountant,” or “any abbreviation or derivation thereof...” Fulcher argued that the effect of the injunction was to prevent him from describing to the public the services he lawfully offers and that such was not the intent of the Act. He did not argue that the Act as applied in the form of the sought injunction violated his federal constitutional rights, until he appealed the second injunction. Fulcher v. Texas State Board of Public Accountancy, 571 S.W.2d 366 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1978, writ ref’d n. r. e.). The appellate court found that Fulcher “failed to pursue and to receive a trial court determination” of the constitutionality of the Act, that the constitutional arguments urged on appeal “were not mentioned in appellant’s trial pleadings or anywhere in the record,” and were only alluded to twice in the statement of facts, once during a pre-trial conference and again towards the end of the trial when counsel disavowed any intention to question the Act’s constitutionality. Fulcher, 571 S.W.2d at 368-9.

Preliminarily, the Court does not find any basis to abstain from exercising its jurisdiction in this case. Any possible relationship the state statute and injunction might have with Texas criminal law need not be' examined. Even as more recently extended, the rationale of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), does not encompass this suit which was brought after all possible state judicial proceedings had ended. Huffman v. Pursue, 420 U.S. 592, 607-10, 95 S.Ct. 1200, 1209-11, 43 L.Ed.2d 482 (1975).

The final decisions reached in those state proceedings do affect how federal jurisdiction is exercised, however. It is well settled that federal courts are required to give preclusive effect to state court judgments whenever the courts of the rendering state would do so. 28 U.S.C. § 1738; Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980); Gresham Park Community Organization v. Howell, 652 F.2d 1227 (5th Cir. 1981). It is also clear that Texas res judicata law precludes relitigation of issues or claims which were actually determined in a prior cause of action as well as those which were not adjudicated but should have been. Gilbert v. Fireside Enterprises, Inc., 611 S.W.2d 869, 871 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1980, no writ history). Determination of whether or not a claim or defense should have been made is based on a “functional ad hoc” approach which focuses on the policies underlying the doctrine of res judicata. Gilbert, supra at 874.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to create an exception to the § 1738 rule for suits brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Allen v. McCurry, supra, 449 U.S. at 98-99, 101 S.Ct. at 417. In applying collateral estoppel to an issue actually determined against the federal plaintiff while a state criminal defendant, the court noted and specifically refused to decide the “peculiar circumstance” of a § 1983 federal plaintiff seeking to litigate a federal issue which he could have, but did not, raise in an earlier [685]*685state court suit. Allen, supra, at 97, n.10, 101 S.Ct. at 416 n.10.

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Bluebook (online)
532 F. Supp. 683, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulcher-v-texas-board-of-public-accountancy-txsd-1982.