Heart Hospital IV, L.P. v. King

116 S.W.3d 831, 2003 WL 22024268
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 30, 2003
Docket03-02-00196-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 116 S.W.3d 831 (Heart Hospital IV, L.P. v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Heart Hospital IV, L.P. v. King, 116 S.W.3d 831, 2003 WL 22024268 (Tex. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

OPINION

DAVID PURYEAR, Justice.

After the Texas Workforce Commission (“the Commission”) denied appellee Charles A. King’s application for unemployment benefits, King sought review of the Commission’s decision in a Travis County district court. Upon realizing that his suit for judicial review should have been filed in Bastrop County, King moved to dismiss his Travis County suit and refiled it in Bastrop County. Both the Commission and Heart Hospital IV, L.P. (“Heart Hospital”) filed pleas to the jurisdiction. The district court denied the Commission’s plea; the Commission and Heart Hospital appeal the denial of the plea.1 See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(8) (West Supp.2003). We will reverse the district court’s denial of the Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction and dismiss the cause.

BACKGROUND

According to King’s pleadings, he was employed by Heart Hospital as a systems engineer from January 1999 until April 2000. Heart Hospital required its employees to submit to random drug tests. King had passed four drug tests during his employment, but on April 25, 2000, Heart Hospital informed King that he had failed his fifth drug test by testing positive for marihuana. Heart Hospital immediately fired King based on the results of the drug test.

On April 30, King filed for unemployment benefits with the Commission and was approved. Heart Hospital appealed the decision. Following an investigation into Heart Hospital’s testing procedures, the Commission’s appeal tribunal determined that the hospital’s testing procedures were flawed and affirmed its initial determination approving King’s application for unemployment benefits. Heart Hospital appealed this decision to the full Commission. On January 10, 2001, the Commission issued its decision, reversing the appeal tribunal’s prior determination, denying King unemployment benefits, and ordering King to repay $6,174 in benefits [834]*834already received. King sought a rehearing, and on March 6, 2001, the Commission overruled the motion for rehearing.

King initially filed his petition for judicial review of the Commission’s decision in Travis County on March 30, 2001. After discovering that his petition for judicial review should have been filed in Bastrop County, King moved to dismiss his petition without prejudice, which the Travis County court granted on June 11. King refiled in Bastrop County on July 9, 2001, 28 days after the dismissal of his initial suit and 125 days after the decision of the Commission became final. Both the Commission and Heart Hospital filed pleas to the jurisdiction, alleging that King did not seek review of the Commission’s decision within fourteen days after it became final, as mandated by section 212.201 of the labor code. The district court denied the Commission’s plea.

DISCUSSION

A party seeking judicial review of a Commission decision must bring his action not later than fourteen days after the Commission’s decision becomes final. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 212.201(a) (West 1996). A Commission decision becomes final fourteen days after it is mailed to the parties. Id. § 212.153 (West 1996). In this case, the Commission mailed its final decision on March 6, 2001. The decision thus became final on March 20, fourteen days later. Accordingly, King was required to seek judicial review of the Commission’s decision by April 3, fourteen days after the decision became final. It is undisputed that King did not file his petition for judicial review in Bastrop County until July 9, well past the fourteen-day deadline.

Both the Commission and Heart Hospital present a single issue for our review: Whether the district court erred in denying the Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction based on King’s failure to file his suit for judicial review in Bastrop County within fourteen days as required by statute. Whether the district court had subject-matter jurisdiction presents a question of law and is reviewed de novo. Mayhew v. Town of Sunnyvale, 964 S.W.2d 922, 928 (Tex.1998). We must begin our analysis by first determining whether compliance with the statutory fourteen-day deadline is jurisdictional. Failure of a party to comply with statutory requirements is no longer an absolute bar to review of an agency determination. Dubai Petroleum Co. v. Kazi, 12 S.W.3d 71, 76 (Tex.2000) (overruling Mingus v. Wadley, 115 Tex. 551, 285 S.W. 1084 (1926)); see also Helton v. Railroad Comm’n, No. 01-01-01007-CV,- S.W.3d -,-, 2003 WL 21299819, at *6, 2003 Tex.App. LEXIS 4832, at *16-17 (Houston [1st Dist.] June 5, 2003, no pet. h.). Some statutory prerequisites, however, remain jurisdictional. Sierra Club v. Texas Natural Res. Conservation Comm’n, 26 S.W.3d 684, 687 (Tex.App.-Austin 2000), aff'd on other grounds, 70 S.W.3d 809 (Tex.2002). This Court has distinguished “statutory prerequisites” from those matters that are “traditionally and undoubtedly elements of subject-matter jurisdiction.” Id. at 687-88. A jurisdictional statutory requirement is one that “defines, enlarges, [or] restricts the class of causes the court may decide or the relief the court may award.” Id. at 688; accord Helton, — S.W.3d at—, 2003 WL 21299819, at *6, 2003 Tex.App. LEXIS 4832, at *17. A statutory requirement that does none of these may nevertheless affect a plaintiff’s right to relief, but it is not jurisdictional. Helton, — S.W.3d at—, 2003 WL 21299819, at *6, 2003 Tex.App. LEXIS 4832, at *17; see also Hill v. Board of Trs. of the Ret. Sys., 40 S.W.3d 676, 679 (Tex.App.-Austin 2001, no pet.). Applying these principles, this [835]*835Court has held that failure to exhaust all administrative remedies, including the timely filing of a motion for rehearing, is jurisdictional “because the filing of the motion for rehearing defines and restricts the kind of case a district court may hear.” Hill, 40 S.W.3d at 679.

Similarly, the statutory fourteen-day deadline also defines and restricts the kind of case that district courts may hear. The district court is generally without jurisdiction to review the agency’s decision unless and until the plaintiff files a petition for judicial review within the statutorily prescribed fourteen days. If the fourteen days expire and the plaintiff has failed to file a petition for judicial review, the Commission’s decision becomes final and unap-pealable. See Texas Alcoholic Beverage Comm’n v. Wilson, 22 S.W.3d 612, 613-14 (Tex.App.-Austin 2000, pet. denied). No trial court can review the Commission’s decision at that point; hence, the scope of the trial court’s jurisdiction is limited. Therefore, we hold that the statutory fourteen-day deadline is a jurisdictional statutory prerequisite and a party’s failure to comply with it deprives the trial court of jurisdiction to review the Commission’s decision.

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116 S.W.3d 831, 2003 WL 22024268, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heart-hospital-iv-lp-v-king-texapp-2003.