Greg Enos Research Memo: Operating Courts Away from County Seat The Enos Law Firm, P.C. Attorneys Webster Texas

Greg Enos Research Memo: Operating Courts Away from County Seat

Posted by: Greg Enos
September 19, 2008
Topic: Legal Issues Raised by Ike

To:       Galveston County Judges
From:       Greg Enos
Re:       Can the courts conduct proceedings outside of the county seat?

1.   The Texas Constitution Art. 5, Sec. 7, requires District Courts to conduct proceedings in the county seat “except as otherwise provided by law.” Numerous cases have held that any judicial proceeding (even signing an order or conducting a telephone hearing) by a district court conducted away from the county seat is void if the change of location is not authorized by statute. Mellon Service Co. Touche Ross & Co., 946 S.W.2d 862 (Tex. App. - Houston [14th Dist.] 1997, no writ); DeShazo v. Hall, 963 S.W.2d 958 (Tex. App. - Houston [14th Dist.] 1998, no pet.); Dal-Briar Corp. V. Tri-Angle Equities, Inc., 22 S.W.3d 520 (Tex. App. - El Paso 2000, no pet.). One case held that signing an order away from the county seat is not a “proceeding” and therefore did not violate the constitution. Burns v. Bishop, 48 S.W.3d 459 (Tex. App. - Houston [14th Dist.], no pet.). An example of a law allowing a district court to act away from the county seat is Fain v. State, 986 S.W.2d 666 (Tex. Crim. App. 1999).

2.     The new statute in Texas Government Code Sec. 24.033 allows the presiding judge of the administrative judicial region in the event of a disaster in Galveston County (or any first or second tier coastal county) that precludes a district court from conducting its proceedings at the county seat to designate an alternate location in the judicial district where the district court can conduct its proceedings.

3.   There is no constitutional limit on where a statutory county court at law can conduct proceedings, so the three Galveston county courts and probate court should be able to hear cases anywhere in the county. A district judge sitting as a juvenile court was allowed to conduct a juvenile proceeding outside of the county seat in In the Matter of G.C., Jr., 980 S.W.2d 908 (Tex. App. - Corpus Christi 1998, writ denied) because:

       Juvenile courts are specialized courts created by the legislature, as authorized by the Texas Constitution, art. V, sec. 1. They are separate from the district courts specifically referred to in article V, section 7....We hold that the juvenile court can hear juvenile cases [outside of the county seat] without any constitutional violation.

   Id. at 910.

   Like juvenile courts, county courts at law and probate courts are courts created by the legislature pursuant to article 5, sec. 1of the Texas Constitution and are clearly not district courts.

4.   Texas Government Code Sec. 74.094(e) allows a judge with the agreement of the parties to conduct any judicial proceedings except for trial on the merits in another county.