Phagan v. State Ex Rel. Eyssen

510 S.W.2d 655, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2529
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 24, 1974
Docket17531
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 510 S.W.2d 655 (Phagan v. State Ex Rel. Eyssen) 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
Phagan v. State Ex Rel. Eyssen, 510 S.W.2d 655, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2529 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

This is an appeal by Jimmie R. Phagan from a summary judgment rendered in case No. 95,041-A in the 30th District Court of Wichita County, ousting him from the office of District Attorney of that County and declaring that office vacant.

In his brief before this Court the appellant stated the following to be the facts in this case: “Appellant is the District Attorney of Wichita County, Texas. As a result of a disbarment trial against the Appellant pursuant to a jury verdict, the Court rendered judgment on May 29, 1973, disbarring the Appellant which said judgment was signed on June 13, 1973 to the effect that Appellant was disbarred from the practice of the law. That judgment is on appeal before this court in Cause No. 17497, styled JIMMIE R. PHAGAN, Appellant, Vs. THE STATE OF TEXAS, Appellee. On the 11th day of September, 1973, this information in the nature of a quo warranto was filed seeking to oust Jimmie R. Phagan from the office of District Attorney.

“Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment . . . which was heard at which time the lower court pronounced the judgment which was subsequently entered in this cause from which this appeal is taken.”

Since the appellee did not challenge the above statement of the case as made by appellant, and actually admitted that the statement was accurate, we accept it as being correct. Rule 419, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

Both sides in their pleadings had alleged that Phagan was the District Attorney of Wichita County and that a judgment had been rendered disbarring him from the practice of law. Neither side disputed these two facts. The record also shows without dispute that appellant has appealed from the disbarment decree.

When the State filed the quo warranto action the appellant, Phagan, filed an answer and a cross-action in the nature of a bill of review, by which cross-action he *658 sought to set aside the disbarment decree that had been rendered against him in the other case. Although the State’s motion for summary judgment only related to the quo warranto action filed against Phagan and did not relate to Phagan’s cross-action by way of a bill of review, the trial court noted in the summary judgment decree that Phagan had timely perfected an appeal from the disbarment decree, and that such appeal was still pending; and did then, in the same decree wherein the summary judgment was rendered on the quo warranto action, dismiss Phagan’s cross-action for a bill of review of the disbarment decree on the grounds that an appeal by Phagan from that decree had been taken and was still pending. The disbarment action and the quo warranto action were both filed in the 30th District Court of Wichita County.

Phagan has brought this appeal from the decree wherein the summary judgment was rendered and which decree also dismissed his cross-action for a bill of review seeking to set aside the prior disbarment decree.

Phagan prays in his appellant’s brief that this Court reverse the trial court’s decree removing him from office and declaring the District Attorney’s office to be vacant and that this Court then dismiss that feature of the case on the grounds that it has, pending appeal, become moot. We cannot grant appellant that relief on the grounds urged by him.

The judgment being appealed from was rendered on November 14, 1973. Both parties in their briefs admit that Phagan thereafter resigned from the office of District Attorney on March 7, 1974.

This resignation did render moot some of the questions involved in the quo war-ranto proceedings, but not all of them. The question of whether Phagan is or is not entitled to the emoluments of the office during the period between the date of the rendition of the decree appealed from and the date of his resignation from the office would hinge on the outcome of this appeal.

The following is from United Coin Met. Co., Inc. v. Johnson-Campbell Lbr. Co., 493 S.W.2d 882 (Fort Worth Civ.App., 1973, no writ hist.) : “The courts hold that: ‘A cause becomes moot when one “seeks judgment upon some matter which, when rendered, for any reason, cannot have any practical legal effect upon a then existing controversy.” ’ Bevil v. Wilfert, 241 S.W.2d 195 (Beaumont Civ.App., 1951, no writ hist.).”

This quo warranto action brought by the State of Texas against appellant, Phagan, to oust him from the office of District Attorney and to declare such office vacant was based on the State’s contention that Article 332, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., requires a person, in order to be eligible to Hold the office of District Attorney, to be a licensed attorney at law, and that when the trial court’s judgment was rendered in the disbarment action disbarring Phagan as an attorney at law and decreeing that he could no longer practice as an attorney at law that he at that time, even pending an appeal of the judgment, became ineligible to hold the office of District Attorney and that the State was for those reasons entitled to a judgment ousting Phagan from the office of District Attorney and declaring that office vacant. The motion for summary judgment was based on those grounds.

Appellant’s first point of error is that the trial court’s judgment of disbarment did not forfeit his license so as to render him ineligible to hold the office of District Attorney and would not have that effect until such time as that decree had been affirmed by the appellate court. This point does not itself point out any particular ruling of the trial court that is claimed to be erroneous as is required by Rule 418, T.R.C.P. But we can tell from reading appellant’s brief as a whole that the contention being made in connection with this point is that the trial court erred in ren *659 dering the summary judgment against him because the disbarment decree was being appealed from and was therefore not a final judgment.and would not have the effect of disbarring him as an attorney at law and rendering him ineligible to hold the office of District Attorney until such time as the judgment had been finally affirmed by the appellate courts.

We overrule all contentions made by appellant in connection with his first point of error.

The affidavit of the District Clerk of Wichita County shows that pursuant to the provisions of Rule 354, T.R.C.P., Phagan did put up $600.00 cash, in lieu of putting up a cost appeal bond, in connection with his appeal from the disbarment decree. The record does not show that any effort was made to supersede the disbarment decree.

In fact Title 14, Art. 12, Sec. 30, Appendix to the State Bar Act, Art. 320a-1, V.A.C.S. (which section relates to disbarment proceedings) provides as follows: “Appeal. No Supersedeas — Either party to such proceeding shall have the right of appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals, but if the judgment appealed from be one suspending or disbarring the defendant, he shall not be entitled to practice law in any form while the appeal is pending, and he shall have no right to supersede the judgment by bond or otherwise.”

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510 S.W.2d 655, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2529, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phagan-v-state-ex-rel-eyssen-texapp-1974.