Joiner v. Vasquez

I cannot agree that res judicata, an equitable doctrine, should bar the present suit to set aside a void judgment of termination of the parental rights of the father. Neither can I agree with the majority that, in a termination case, the policy of finality of judgments should prevail over the policy, enunciated by the legislature in the Texas Family Code, that the best interests of the children should be paramount in any suit *762affecting the parent-child relationship. In this respect, at no hearing have the interests of the children been considered, except at a hearing in 1980, in which the…