In re Minix

543 S.W.3d 446
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 27, 2018
DocketNO. 14–17–00417–CV
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 543 S.W.3d 446 (In re Minix) 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
In re Minix, 543 S.W.3d 446 (Tex. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinions

Martha Hill Jamison, Justice

In this original proceeding, we are asked to decide whether Section 153.0071 of the Texas Family Code permits the parties to a mediated settlement agreement in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship ("MSA") to agree to set aside the MSA. Here, there is evidence that the parties agreed to set aside the MSA. The trial court, however, never ruled that the MSA

*449was set aside. Subsequently, relator Gladys N. Minix moved to enter judgment on the MSA, and the trial court denied her motion.

Gladys brings this mandamus proceeding, asking this court to compel the Honorable David Farr, presiding judge of the 312th District Court of Harris County, to enter a judgment consistent with the terms of the MSA. See Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 22.221 (West Supp. 2017); see also Tex. R. App. P. 52. We conclude that the plain language of section 153.0071 does not permit the parties to the MSA to consent to revoking it, and we conditionally grant the petition for writ of mandamus.

I. BACKGROUND

Gladys and real party in interest Michael Sterling Alexander have a three-year-old child. Michael filed an original petition in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship. After Michael filed his petition, he and Gladys and their respective attorneys signed an MSA and filed it with the trial court on December 1, 2015. Under the MSA, Gladys and Michael were joint managing conservators, and Michael's possession of the child was unsupervised and similar to a standard possession order. Michael was to pay $1,300 per month in child support. The parties did not request the trial court to enter judgment on the MSA at that time. The court was not asked to enter temporary orders.

In January 2016, Michael filed a motion to enforce the MSA, and subsequently filed first and second amended motions to enforce the MSA, alleging that Gladys had failed to comply with the MSA by denying Michael possession of or access to the child. On March 28, 2016, Michael filed a motion to enter temporary orders consistent with the MSA.

On May 24, 2016, Gladys filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and an emergency motion to modify, requesting the trial court to (1) appoint her sole managing conservator; and (2) deny Michael possession of or access to the child. Gladys alleged that the child had welts across his back, and the child said Michael had hit him with a belt. On May 27, 2016, the trial court signed a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Michael from having possession of or access to the child and setting a date for a temporary orders hearing.

On June 7, 2016, Michael filed a petition to set aside the MSA and request for temporary orders, alleging that Gladys had failed to cooperate in obtaining a final order based on the MSA and Gladys had repeatedly violated the MSA. The parties' attorneys appeared before Judge Farr that same day and advised him that the parties had agreed to set aside the MSA. Gladys does not recall being at the June 7, 2016 hearing, and there is neither a record of the June 7, 2016 hearing nor a docket entry reflecting that the MSA was set aside. The parties never signed any document stating that they were setting aside the MSA.

The following day, on June 8, 2016, at a hearing on temporary orders before Associate Judge Eileen Gaffney, Gladys's attorney at that time, Stephanie Proffitt, advised Judge Gaffney that the parties had stipulated to set aside the MSA:

MS. PROFFITT: I think yesterday when we were down here, it was stipulated on the record that the mediated settlement agreement that the parties entered into back in November or December is set aside.
THE COURT: Does that sound correct?
MR. PLACZEK: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: And I think y'all did that in front of Judge Farr?
MR. PLACZEK: Yes, Your Honor.

*450At that hearing, the trial court entered "Band-Aid" temporary orders. On June 29, 2016, Gladys filed a motion to modify the Band-Aid orders based on newly discovered evidence, requesting that she be appointed sole managing conservator and Michael and his wife be denied possession of and access to the child.

On August 19, 2016, Judge Farr signed an agreed order for psychological examinations of Gladys and Michael to assist in his determination of which parent should have the exclusive right to determine the primary residence of the child. On November 22, 2016, Judge Farr signed agreed temporary orders, appointing Gladys and Michael temporary joint managing conservators and awarding Gladys the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the child. The terms of the temporary orders were similar to those in the MSA, except that Michael's child support obligation was increased to $1,422.05 per month.

Gladys hired her current counsel on March 7, 2017, and counsel filed a motion for entry of judgment based on the MSA and also requested that all subsequent temporary orders, rule 11 agreements, and other court orders be vacated. On March 21, 2017, the trial court held a hearing on Gladys's motion for entry of judgment. At the hearing, Michael's counsel stipulated the MSA is valid and binding and "under normal circumstances [Gladys] would have an absolute right to enforce it," but contended that the parties had agreed to set aside the MSA.

Gladys testified at the hearing that she initially believed that the MSA was a final settlement of all issues, but came to believe it was no longer a final agreement because "we continued to come to court and it was continued [sic] to be litigated." Gladys stated that she did not recall being in front of Judge Farr on June 7, 2016, but she remembered being in front of Judge Gaffney the next day. Gladys stated that she did not agree to set aside the MSA, nor did she recall Proffitt informing Judge Gaffney that the MSA had been set aside the previous day. Proffitt testified that Gladys was in court on June 7, 2016, and that Judge Farr set aside the MSA.1

The trial court took Gladys's motion for entry of judgment on the MSA under advisement and, on April 27, 2017, signed an order denying the motion. Gladys filed her petition for writ of mandamus, asking this court to (1) set aside the April 27, 2017 order denying her motion for judgment on the MSA; and (2) direct the trial court to render judgment consistent with the terms of the MSA.

II. MANDAMUS STANDARD OF REVIEW

Generally, to be entitled to mandamus relief, a relator must demonstrate (1) the trial court clearly abused its discretion; and (2) the relator has no adequate remedy by appeal. In re Nat'l Lloyds Ins. Co. , 507 S.W.3d 219, 226 (Tex. 2016) (orig. proceeding) (per curiam). A trial court clearly abuses its discretion if it reaches a decision so arbitrary and unreasonable as to amount to a clear and prejudicial error of law, or if it clearly fails to analyze the law correctly or apply the law correctly to the facts.

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543 S.W.3d 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-minix-texapp-2018.