In re Rio Grande Valley Gas Co.

Justice HECHT, joined by Justice OWEN,

dissenting from the denial of the petitions for writ of mandamus.

These two petitions for mandamus raise an important question about the scope of local court rules — rules adopted by a majority of the district or county judges in a county,1 and sometimes by individual judges.2 The question is this: can local court rules authorize the transfer of a case from one court to another in the same county when the transfer would (a) circumvent the procedure prescribed by statute and by state court rules for determining whether the presiding judge of the court from…