In re Wanda F. Look, as Trustee of the Dwight Look Revocable Trust and as

Independent Executor of the Estate of Dwight Look, Deceased

Relator Wanda F. Look filed a petition for writ of mandamus challenging the Travis County Probate Court Number 1's order transferring Nueces County cause number 05-6104-3, In re: The Dwight Look Revocable Trust, to Travis County. Judge Herman ordered that transfer pursuant to the Probate Code, based on the filing in Travis County of cause number 82,252, Guardianship of Robert Look Jameson, a Minor. See Tex. Prob. Code Ann. § 608 (West Supp. 2005). Relator Wanda Look also filed a motion for temporary relief, asking that the transfer and any further proceedings in Travis County be stayed. Simply granting that temporary relief, however, would have left relator free to continue the litigation in Nueces County, thus giving relator substantially all of the relief sought through the petition for writ of mandamus.

The Court notes that the parties first secured "competing" temporary restraining orders. ⁽¹⁾ The Travis County Probate Court has signed a temporary injunction that, among other matters, prohibits relator from taking further action in Nueces County. The Nueces County Court has a hearing set on a temporary injunction November 16, 2005. This Court has decided to grant the request for oral argument on the petition for writ of mandamus because it believes that argument will materially assist this Court. In order to allow the Court time to schedule the argument and decide the petition for writ of mandamus, this Court has determined that the equitable remedy is to suspend all further proceedings in Travis County, conditioned upon relator Wanda Look suspending all further proceedings in Nueces County. ⁽²⁾ The temporary injunction order of November 8, 2005, is also suspended. Wanda Look may file a notice of appeal from that temporary injunction in order to protect future rights. See Tex. R. App. P. 52.10(b) (court may grant any just relief pending court's action on petition).

The parties will be notified by separate letter of the date of the oral argument. The parties are requested to tender an original and six copies of the petition for writ of mandamus, responses, and other filings. The parties are requested to tender additional copies of previously filed documents to reach this number, except that no additional copies of the mandamus record have to be tendered. Responses to the motion for temporary relief have been received. Although those responses addressed the merits of the petition for writ of mandamus to a significant degree, real parties in interest are free to file additional responses addressed specifically to the petition.

It is ordered November 10, 2005.

W. Kenneth Law, Chief Justice

Before Chief Justice Law, Justices B. A. Smith and Puryear

1. The Nueces County temporary restraining order's effectiveness was conditioned on the posting of a bond. The bond was not posted before the Travis County hearing on the temporary injunction.

2. It appears from the transfer order that the parties are actually litigating three causes: Number 05-61045-3, In re: The Dwight Look Revocable Trust (Nueces County); 83,252, Guardianship of Robert Look Jameson, a Minor (Travis County); and a third case, Estate of Dwight Look, Deceased, about whose transfer the Probate Court reserved judgment. The intent of this order is to stay all proceedings related to these causes.