
    The UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MEDICAL BRANCH AT GALVESTON, Appellant, v. The ESTATE OF Darla BLACKMON, By its Beneficiary Sheila SHULTZ and Sheila Shultz Individually, Appellees.
    No. 10-03-00093-CV.
    Court of Appeals of Texas, Waco.
    April 27, 2005.
    Harry Deckard, Asst. Atty. General-Tort Litigation Div., Austin, for appellant.
    Stephen A. Khoury, Dallas, for appel-lees.
   TOM GRAY, Chief Justice,

dissenting opinion to order granting rehearing.

It is frequently said that the shortest route between two points is a straight line. We have completed that journey in that case. Six months ago, we issued an opinion that fully disposed of this appeal. The motion for rehearing was timely filed to which a response was not requested until five months after the disposition of the case. I am extraordinarily reluctant to withdraw an opinion and judgment of this Court when I have been provided nothing upon which to base that decision. By this, I do not mean that we have not received argument in a motion for rehearing, but rather that we normally do not withdraw an opinion without simultaneously substituting another opinion in its place.

I see no reason to withdraw an opinion unless and until we have decided, drafted, and are ready to issue such an opinion, I believe it is ill-advised to withdraw a previously issued opinion which garnered support from a majority of the justices on the court.

Accordingly, I dissent from the Order Granting Rehearing which results in the withdrawal of the opinion and judgment of this Court dated October 13, 2004.  