Freightliner Corp. v. Motor Vehicle Board of Texas (TxDoT)

Freightliner Corporation and Ford Motor Company v. Motor Vehicle Board of the Texas Department of Transportation and Metro Ford Truck Sales, Inc., No. (Tex.App.- Austin, May 1, 2008) (May 1, 2008) () (reversed and remanded) (Before Justices Patterson, Pemberton and Waldrop)
Freightliner Corporation and Ford Motor Company v. Motor Vehicle Board of the Texas Department of Transportation and Metro Ford Truck Sales, Inc.--Appeal from of County

O P I N I O N

In this direct appeal, we consider whether an agency can, on remand after courts have considered and affirmed the agency's decision in part, revisit an issue affirmed by the courts and reverse the original result based on the same record. Based on the procedural history of this case, we conclude that the Motor Vehicle Board of the Texas Department of Transportation did not have the power on remand to revisit its original determination that Ford Motor Company had good cause to terminate Metro Ford Truck Sales, Inc.'s truck dealer's franchise. We reverse the Board's order entered after remand in which the Board found that Ford did not have good cause to terminate Metro's franchise. We remand for any necessary proceedings that follow the determination that a manufacturer has good cause to terminate its truck dealer's franchise.
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Our conclusion that the original good cause determination was not remanded obviates our consideration of whether substantial evidence supports the finding on remand of no good cause for termination. The Board argues that substantial evidence can support opposing factual findings based on the same record. While theoretically correct, that contention is immaterial because the good cause determination was not properly before the Board on remand. We need not review the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the unauthorized revised finding.
We cannot, however, render judgment terminating Metro's dealer agreement and ordering the winding up of the relationship by a date certain as Ford urges. Although courts are empowered to affirm, reverse, or remand agency decisions, we do not find a power in this type of situation to render a decision that the agency should have rendered. See Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 2001.174; Pantera, 150 S.W.3d at 474 n.9; GTE-SW, 833 S.W.2d at 175; Consumers Water, Inc. v. Public Util. Comm'n, 774 S.W.2d 719, 722 (Tex. App.--Austin 1989, no writ); see also Marrs v. Railroad Comm'n, 177 S.W.2d 941, 950 (Tex. 1944). Under these circumstances, we cannot render judgment terminating the dealer agreement or dictating the pace of the windup of the relationship.
Instead, we must remand this cause to the Director of the Motor Vehicle Division of the Texas Department of Transportation (7) to conduct the proceedings that should have followed our previous remand. Because this Court by its decision in 2000 affirmed and did not remand the Board's good cause determination for further consideration, we conclude that the Board exceeded its power and committed an error of law by revisiting and reversing that determination. That error affected the substantial rights of Ford and Freightliner by altering the fundamental finding that Ford had good cause to terminate Metro's franchise. See generally Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 2001.174. Accordingly, we reverse the Board's Final Order After Remand signed February 3, 2005, because it adopts Finding of Fact No. 49 and Conclusion of Law No. 5, both of which concern the unauthorized reconsideration and rejection of the affirmed good cause determination. We reverse the entire order because the remaining actions it directs flow from the improperly revised good cause determination. We remand the cause to the Director for further proceedings established by statute and regulation to follow the Board's previously affirmed determination that Ford had good cause to terminate the franchise in question.