Cases Pending Before September 1, 2024, Cannot Be Removed to Texas Business Court, Dallas Court Holds
In the first opinion to address the issue, the Texas Business Court determined that it lacks jurisdiction over cases pending before September 1, 2024, even if the cases otherwise meet the jurisdictional requirements of the Business Court.
In a first-of-its-kind decision on October 30, 2024, the Texas Business Court, First Division, ruled that only cases filed on or after September 1, 2024, can be removed to the new Texas Business Court (see our previous Alert, Texas Legislature Passes Law Creating New Business Courts). The First Division, which sits in Dallas, concluded that the plain text of Texas House Bill 19 prohibits removal of cases that were pending in a Texas district court before September 1, 2024, even if they otherwise meet the Business Court's jurisdictional requirements.
The case, which involves a dispute over a gas gathering agreement, was filed in Dallas County District Court in April 2022, and plaintiffs removed it to the Business Court on September 30, 2024. The defendants moved for remand on the grounds that a pre-September 1, 2024, case was not removable.
The Business Court considered the language of House Bill 19 "as a whole" and found the resolution in sections 8 and 9. Section 9, which says that the "Act takes effect September 1, 2023," provided the "start date for ramping up this brand-new court to begin hearing cases," the court explained, but removals were not practical then because the court lacked the resources required to function. Consequently, the Texas "legislature provided one year for the court to become ready to begin accepting cases," and "H.B. 19 § 8 is that authorizing statute." Section 8 states that "[t]he changes in the law made by this Act apply to civil actions commenced on or after September 1, 2024," which the court interpreted to include the removal provisions in House Bill 19, codified at Section 25A.006 of the Government Code. Applying canons of statutory construction, the court "presume[d] the legislature wrote § 8 the way it did for a reason and cannot ignore its plain language" and construed the statute's removal provisions as limited to cases filed on or after September 1, 2024." The court therefore concluded that House Bill 19's "plain text precludes plaintiffs' removal" and remanded the case to the Dallas district court.
