In Re Brookshire Grocery Co.

Justice HECHT,

joined by Justice WAINWRIGHT, Justice BRISTER, and Justice GREEN, dissenting.

Procedural rules exist to subserve the presentation and resolution of cases on their merits. As Rule 1 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure states, “[t]he proper objective of rules of civil procedure is to obtain a just, fair, equitable and impartial adjudication of the rights of litigants under established principles of substantive law.” The rules are written to achieve this purpose and must be construed accordingly.

This court has labored long and hard to remove as many procedural traps from our rules…