§ 26.051.State Agency with Exclusive or Primary Jurisdiction

A sequencing rule, and the order it imposes saves the most expensive step in a class action from being taken unnecessarily.

Before hearing or deciding a motion to certify, a trial court must hear and rule on all pending pleas to the jurisdiction asserting that a state agency has exclusive or primary jurisdiction of the action or part of it, or that a party has failed to exhaust administrative remedies. The ruling must be reflected in a written order.

Certification is the point at which a class action becomes expensive and its settlement pressure real. Deciding it before knowing whether the court has jurisdiction at all inverts the sensible order, and this section corrects it.

The scope is specific. Not every jurisdictional objection — only those asserting agency exclusive or primary jurisdiction or failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Those arise where a regulated industry is sued over conduct a state agency oversees, and where the agency's process may be the proper forum.

Subsection (b) supplies review. If the plea is denied and a class is later certified, a person may obtain appellate review of the denial as part of an appeal of the certification order — so the jurisdictional question travels with the interlocutory certification appeal rather than waiting for final judgment.

Subsection (c) is a saving clause: the section does not alter or abrogate any right to appeal or pursue an original proceeding regarding a plea to the jurisdiction that exists under statutory or common law when review is sought.