Supreme Court of Texas

In an action seeking a declaratory judgment that a county and its sheriff violated the state constitution by failing to pay his full salary during his second term as a deputy sheriff after he became disabled, a court of appeals ruling affirming a take-nothing judgment against plaintiff is vacated where the court of appeals should not have reached the ultimate constitutional question of whether the constitution's full-pay entitlement extends into an officer's subsequent term of office, without first reviewing whether plaintiff's incapacity resulted from a job-related injury, a precondition to receiving continued salary.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/05/2006
• Decided 04/27/2007
• Published 04/27/2007

Judges

• Justice WILLETT delivered the opinion of the Court.

Court

• Supreme Court of Texas

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Philip Durst, B. Craig Deats, Deats Durst Owen & Levy, P.L.L.C., Austin, and Richard L. Aman, Cleat Senior Staff Atty., Houston, for Petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Thomas F. Rugg, Jefferson County Criminal District Atty's Office, Beaumont, and Thomas E. Maness, Criminal District Atty., Beaumont, for Respondents.