We are presently on the unpleasant receiving end of a declaratory judgment which awarded more than $90,000 in attorney's fees. The DJ concerned the salary of an elected official. The elected official's term of office ended on Dec. 31, 2000. The case already has been up to the Court of Appeals once on interlocutory appeal, with the COA ruling that sovereign immunity barred recovery of back pay, but not a request for declaratory relief. The visiting judge, who doesn't like us very much, whacked us on remand. We have filed a notice of appeal.

It seems to me that there is not much room to dispute that the DJ action regarding the salary for a long-ago expired term of office is moot, particularly since no back pay can be recovered. As the Supremes told us in Williams v. Lara, capable-of-repetition-yet-evading-review requires that the same problem be likely to recur as between the same parties. The official in question here moved out of county, so that exception to mootness won't fly. The only one which may is the Austin court's "public interest" exception. Has anyone had that exception crammed down their throat (or has anyone successfully fended it off)?