On Wednesday, May 20, the Top of Texas Republican Women held their last meeting before summer break, with the Honorable 223rd Judge Phil Vanderpool as the guest speaker. Introducing him was TOTRW President Kathryn Green.
“It gives me great, great pleasure to tell you a little bit about Phil Vanderpool. It is extraordinary what he has accomplished. In 1975, Judge Vanderpool and his wife Gladys moved to Pampa. They have been married more than 50 years. In that same year, Gladys graduated from Centenary College of Louisiana with a degree in business. Judge Vanderpool graduated from SMU Dedman School of Law, receiving a juridical doctorate degree. He took the bar, passed the bar, was licensed to practice law in Texas and began practicing law with J.B. McGuire, Jr. He and Gladys got married and then moved to Pampa. Gladys got a job as security savings and loan association, and thanks to her boss, she soon became the first woman mortgage loan officer in Pampa, Texas. Some call a year like that stressful, but to them, it was life and you just went on. They had two sons, both of whom they are very proud. Judge Vanderpool has served on many boards of community organizations, such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Pampa Fine Arts Association, was president of the Pampa Downtown Kiwanis in 1981 and 1982, and was president of the Pampa Rotary Club in 2016 and 2018. Judge Vanderpool served on the Pampa ISD Board of Trustees in the early 80s, and again in the early 90s. He was the PISD Board of Trustees representative on the short-lived County Education District. He was a charterman of leadership for the TASB (Texas Association of School Boards) and was designated by TASB as a master trustee and was a presenter/speaker at the Texas Association of School Boards annual conference generally held in Houston, and on more than one occasion, trained new board members from all over the state. Judge Vanderpool served as district chairman on the Santa Fe District here in Pampa of the Boy Scouts in the 80s, and under his leadership, the Santa Fe District received the National Quality district in ‘89, and he received the district award of merit. Judge Vanderpool was appointed City Prosecutor for Pampa in the municipal court from 1976 to 1981. After five years as prosecutor, he was appointed Municipal Court Judge serving in that capacity from 1981 to 1986, and again from 1993 to 2002. From 1997 to 2002, Judge Vanderpool served as a certified hearing examiner for the Texas Education Agency hearing dismissed teachers cases in an adminstrative process in the Texas panhandle. In 2002, Judge Vanderpool closed his law office after having been appointed as Associate Judge of the Ninth Administrative Judicial region, serving as judge in the northern panhandle child protective court. He served in that capacity for ten years sitting in eight different judicial districts and serving 23 counties in the Texas panhandle, while also presiding over a two-week termination jury trial in Kerrville, and another termination jury trial in Bandera. Judge Vanderpool averaged about 3,600 miles each month, sometimes as much as 1,100 a week in his own vehicle. The program organized in each state under legislation from the U.S. Congress. ‘One family, one judge’ to provide consistency to child abuse cases. He was recognized as Texas CASA Judge of the Year in 2010 and was a frequent speaker at many CASA annual conferences. He was on the judges panel at the National Association of Counsel for Children in 2010, was a speaker panelist at the South Plains Foster Care court and Lubbock Bar Association conference in 2006 and the associate judges conference for the Texas Center for the Judiciary in 2010, and the state-wide annual conference for the Rural Association for Court Administration in 2011. He assisted in organizing Great Plains CASA for Kids in Hereford, and CASA of the Rolling Plains in Childress. On his own time, he trained CASA volunteers at Amarillo Area CASA, CASA of the High Plains here in Pampa, Great Plains CASA for Kids in Hereford, and CASA of the Rolling Plains in Childress. Judge Vanderpool was a member of the state bar of the Texas Standing Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, chairing on the legal education sub-committee. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, he served as course director for the Child Abuse and Neglect workshop. The first time that course was an all-day course and not merely a half a day. And at the state bar’s annual Advanced Family Law Course, and at that time was the largest single continuing legal education event in the country with speakers and lawyers and judges from all over the nation. Judge Vanderpool served on the school’s stability and transition sub-comittee of the Education Committee of the Supreme Court of Texas, permit Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families, and shared the legal representation workshop of the Supreme Court of Texas. He was admitted to practice law in the state of Texas in 1975, the Northern District of Texas, U.S. District Court in 1978, the Western District of Oklahoma, the United States District Court and the United States Supreme Court in 2000. He is also a sustaining life-fellow to the Texas Bar Foundation. Judge Vanderpool was first elected to a four-year term as the 223rd State District Court Judge in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, 2018, and 2022. He serves as presiding judge of that court and is the local administrative district judge with certain duties and responsibilities set forth in the rules of judicial administration. His last term this December 31 due to age limits in the Texas Constitution. It is my supreme honor to introduce to you the Honorable Judge Phil Vanderpool.”
“Thank you for having us, Gladys and I are happy to be here. I can tell you without the love of God and our faith, without the love of Gladys and our two sons, without our First Methodist Church families, none of what you just heard would have happened. There’s a story about a 31st District Judge in about 1914-his name was Frank Willis. Back then, the law books were very rare, and so he and his District Attorney, W. H. Woodman, happened to have an 1879 law book that was probably one of the only ones in the panhandle. They were headed to court in a horse and buggy, and they get to the Canadian river and it’s swollen. So Judge Willis in his judicial wisdom says to W.H. Woodman, ‘we should walk across the Canadian River to get to court.’ So Woodman not questioning the wisdom of the judge puts the law book on his head and start across the river. Well, Judge Willis steps in quicksand and he says, ‘Woodman, help!’ And Woodman says, ‘Your Honor, the law!’ And Judge Willis says, ‘To heck with the law Woodman, save the court!’ I realized when I was getting ready for this, Judge Willis’s picture, if you’ve ever been in my courtroom, the judges are across the wall in the back and his picture is hanging in my courtroom. Also his predecessor was Frank Greever and he was the District Judge when the courthouse was in Lefors, so there was an event that caused Judge Willis to take Judge Greever’s place.”
“So let’s talk a little bit about court jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is the legal authority, the power or the right of a court to hear, decide and issue binding orders in a case that is the power of a court to adjudicate cases and issue orders. Jurisdiction defines the limits in which a court can operate and cover in subject matter and personal jurisdiction, and in some instances jurisdiction can be territorial. Subject matter jurisdiction is the authority to hear a specific type of case, be it civil, family, criminal, juvenile, which are the primary areas of which a district court would have jurisdiction. Personal jurisdiction is the authority over the specific people or organizations involved in a lawsuit. Territorial jurisdiction is the physical geographic area over which a court has authority. All of the district courts in Texas are state courts. For example, the judge of a district court can be assigned to hear matters anywhere in the state. Article 5 Section 8 of the Texas Constitution says: ‘District court jurisdiction consists of exclusive, appellate, and original jurisdiction of all actions, proceedings, and remedies, except in cases where exclusive, appellate, or original jurisdiction may be conferred by this Constitution or other law on some other court, tribunal, or administrative body. District Court judges shall have the power to issue writs necessary to enforce their jurisdiction. The District Court shall have appellate jurisdiction and general supervisory control over the County Commissioners Court, with such exceptions and under such regulations as may be prescribed by law.’ The District Courts are the state trial courts of general jurisdiction of Texas. The geographical area served by each district court is established by the legislature, but each county must be served by at least one district court. Its sparsely populated areas of the state, several counties may be served by a single district court, while an urban county may be served by many district courts. So we have two district courts in Gray County, and one is a single-county district court-the 223rd which is the one I preside. Then there’s the 31st District Court which consists of five counties including Gray County presided by Steven Emmert. We both have the same district court jurisdiction. District courts have original jurisdiction in felony criminal cases, divorce cases, cases involving titled land, election contest cases, civil matters in which the amount of money or damages involved is $200 or more, and any matters in which jurisdiction is not placed in another trial court. In some states, in California for example, they call their general jurisdication trial courts Superior Courts. While most district try criminal and civil cases, in the more densely populated counties, the courts may specialize in civil, criminal, juvenile, or family law matters. I can tell you that the state of Texas has more single-county district courts than multi-county district courts. There are about 550 sitting district courts in the state of Texas, and about 350 of those are single-county district courts because of your urban areas. For example, the constitutional county court, which we have in Gray County, the Texas Constitution provides for a county court in each of the 254 counties in the state, but all such courts do not exercise judicial functions. In the more populous counties, the County Judge may devote his or her full attention to administration of county government. The Constitutional County Court have original jurisdication over all criminal cases involving Class A and Class B misdemeanors which are the more serious minor offenses. These courts usually have appellate jurisdiction in cases appealed from Justice of the Peace who have municipal courts, except in counties where county courts at law have long been established. County courts at law are statutory courts, but we don’t have that here in Gray County because it’s a constitutional county court, and the judges of county courts at law have to be lawyers just like the judges in district courts have to be lawyers.”
“A commissioners court is not actually a court. It is mainly an adminstrative, policy-making body in a given county presided over by the Constitutional County Court. Those judges are primarily responsible for administrative, not judicial. Another distinction is there is a difference between county government and city government. In county government, counties are established by the state constitution. As such, counties are generally an administrative arm of state government. Cities on the other hand, are established by the citizens and then incorporated, so that’s why you’ve heard the term ‘home-ruled cities.’ Counties are not necessarily home-ruled like a city is. The duties of a district judge along with the court’s primary legal jurisdiction, the judge has trial and courtroom duties, case management, jury oversight, both petit juries which are your juries that come in to hear cases specifically, and the grand jury who decides if there’s enough probable cause to indict a defendant who is charged with committing a crime. Keep in mind district courts handle felony cases. We can handle Class A misdemeanors if it is official misconduct by an elected official. We take on evidentiary rulings, rulings on motions and other requests for relief, determine punishment unless the defendant elects to have the jury determine punishment in criminal cases, and then order appropriate remedies in civil disputes. There are certain administrative and statutory responsibilities such as setting bonds and issuing warrants. There’s court administration working with the Court Coordinator for example in organizing dockets and scheduling cases. The judges also appoint the County Auditor. The reason for that I think is if the commissioners court appointed the auditors, you might have a situation where the fox is guarding the hen house so to speak. So the district judges appoint the County Auditor, and we also have the ability to remove them from office. I will say the last two legislative sessions has added more administrative responsibilities to the district courts all under the guise of accountability. So as any self-respecting judge would do, I reserve ruling on necessity and expedience of those administrative duties they added.
“The 223rd District Court was organized in 1977 and began hearing cases on April 1, 1977. The Texas Constitution provides for a proportionality committee which determines which counties need district courts because of case load. I can tell you that case load and population are directly connected. In 1977 when the 223rd was organized, the legislature also had taken the recommendation from the proportionality committee and created 49 other district courts that same year. Not only the 223rd, but for example the 222nd in Deaf Smith and Oldham counties, which is a two-county district court, and they took two counties out of the 69th which is Dalhart, Dumas, Channing and Stratford. That was a six-county district and now a four-county district with 222nd taking over two counties there. In Gray County, the 223rd District Court and the 31st District Court have the same level of authority in jurisdiction. Generally, the 223rd hears all of the civil, family law, and felony juvenile cases and half of the criminal cases, and the 31st hears the other half of the criminal cases. The way that’s divided is the first six months the 31st has its grand jury and the last six months, the 223rd has its grand jury.”
“The 223rd District Court has original jurisdiction in (1) civil matters, including cases involving land, oil and gas, personal injury, contracts, commercial cases, and other matters; (2) family law cases, including divorce and suits affecting the parent-child relationship; and, (3) one-half (1/2) of felony criminal cases. Additionally, through the Court’s Associate Judges, the 223rd District Court hears Texas Attorney General child support cases and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services child protection court cases. The district court cannot initiate any kind of lawsuit or petition on its own, it has to be brought to the court by somebody else.”
“Clark Teague has been my official Court Bailiff since I took this bench in 2011, and he actually started with Judge Waters in 2008. Karen Morris is my official Court Reporter, and she lives in Amarillo and travels over here. She’s been in the court reporting business since 1977, so she is outstanding and knows her business well. Krissie Dudley is my Court Coordinator and will be the 223rd District Court Coordinator for the next seven months and will then be the District Clerk. I want you to know that each member of my court is required to complete continuing education hours each year and remain up-to-date. Clark has a TCOLE license, Karen is also certified by the commission in Austin, and Krissie is required to do hours by the Texas Center for the Judiciary. She has to do 16 hours a year as does the judge of the court, which is what I do, and lawyers have to do 15.”
“We continue to work and maintain the court’s integrity and independence and to ensure all of our cases are resolved timely, with fairness, justice, and dignity.”
