Opinion
No. 7383.
Decided July 26, 1939.
Moot Case — Judgment.
When a case has become moot the only correct judgment to be entered is one dismissing the case.
Error to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Ninth District, in an appeal from Jefferson County.
Suit by Port Arthur Independent School District and its Board of Trustees, Thomas Jefferson Senior High School, its principal, Arvin N. Donner, its faculty and all the pupils attending said school and certain boys, who were minors, on the football team for Thomas Jefferson Senior High School, and who appeared by their next friend G. M. Sims, Superintendent of the Port Arthur Independent School District, against the University Interscholastic League, a voluntary association of white high schools throughout the State, and the various officers thereof, for an injunction to prohibit them from attempting to enforce a certain resolution passed by a committee of one of its districts limiting the qualifications of the teams to be selected for the football team to represent said district. The trial court sustained a general demurrer to the petition and dismissed the case. This order was reversed and the cause remanded, 111 S.W.2d 814, and the League has brought error to the Supreme Court.
The case was referred to the Commission of Appeals, Section A, for their opinion thereon and the Supreme Court adopted same and ordered judgment entered in accordance therewith.
Judgments of both courts vacated, cause dismissed, and costs assessed against the plaintiffs.
M. L. Lefler, and E. B. Votaw, both of Beaumont, for plaintiffs in error.
A. A. Gunter and A. V. Watson, both of Beaumont, for defendants in error.
The nature of this case is reflected by the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals. 111 S.W.2d 814. That court entered its order reversing the judgment of the trial court and remanding the cause thereto for another trial. Admittedly the case is moot. In order to give this Court jurisdiction to enter the correct order in a moot case, this writ was granted. The correct order to enter is one dismissing the case. McWhorter v. Northcutt, 94 Tex. 86, 58 S.W. 720; Thompson v. Seale, 122 Tex. 160, 53 S.W.2d 764; Sterling v. Ferguson, 122 Tex. 122, 53 S.W.2d 753; Taylor v. Nealon et al, 132 Tex. 60, 120 S.W.2d 586; Iles v. Walker, 132 Tex. 6, 120 S.W.2d 418; Cisco Independent School District v. Dudley, 53 S.W.2d 639; International Ass'n. of Machinists Union No. 1486, et al, v. Federated Association of Accessory Workers, et al, 133 Tex. 624, 130 S.W.2d 282.
It is therefore ordered that the judgments below be vacated, the case be dismissed, and all costs in all courts be assessed against defendants in error, who were plaintiffs in the trial court.
Opinion adopted by the Supreme Court July 26, 1939.