Summary
vacating and remanding because the district court had "dismissed on the authority of" a case that the Supreme Court overruled
Summary of this case from Utah v. SuOpinion
No. 73-2967.
April 19, 1974.
Dwight H. Moore, DeSoto, Tex., Edward Walter Dunbar, El Paso, Tex., for plaintiff-appellant.
N. Alex Bickley, City Atty., Lois Bacon, T. Alex Eastus, Asst. City Attys., Dallas, Tex., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Plaintiff-Appellants, habitual traffic offenders who claim to be indigent, challenged certain sentencing procedures of the Dallas municipal courts as violating Tate v. Short, 1971, 401 U.S. 395, 91 S. Ct. 668, 28 L.Ed.2d 130, and Argersinger v. Hamlin, 1972, 407 U.S. 25, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 32 L.Ed.2d 530. Their objections were to the alleged automatic conversion of fines to terms in jail, and to the imposition of such jail terms without affording counsel to indigent defendants. Declaratory and injunctive relief was sought.
The complaint, insofar as it related to defendants' future conduct, was dismissed on the authority of Becker v. Thompson, 5 Cir., 1972, 459 F.2d 919. That decision has now been reversed by the Supreme Court sub nom. Steffel v. Thompson, ___ U.S. ___, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974). The judgement of the district court is vacated and remanded for reconsideration in light of Steffel, and for further proceedings not inconsistent therewith.
In view of our remand, we do not reach any issue arising from the dismissal on the ground of mootness of that part of the case having to do with defendants' past conduct.
Vacated and remanded with direction.