Banker v. City of Groves

295 S.W.2d 548, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1938
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 4, 1956
Docket6053
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 295 S.W.2d 548 (Banker v. City of Groves) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Banker v. City of Groves, 295 S.W.2d 548, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1938 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

WALKER, Justice.

The appeal is from an order denying a temporary injunction. The subject matter of the suit consists of claims by appellant Banker founded on a contract dated May 22, 1947, between Mr. Banker and Jefferson County Water Control & Improvement District No. 1. This contract is discussed in our opinion reported sub nomine Banker v. Jefferson County Water Control & Improvement District No. 1, Tex.Civ.App., 277 S.W.2d 130. In 1954, the District was abolished and the appellee City of Groves succeeded to its rights and liabilities under the contract.

We held in the decisions just cited that the provision of the contract which required Mr. Banker’s consent to connections made by the District to parts of a pipe line for transporting water was void. The action in which this decision was rendered was *549 one for damages, for breach of this provision or for conversion of the water lines. After our decision, Mr. Banker brought the present suit and in his petition prays, in substance, that the City, as the District’s successor, be required either to comply with the consent provision just mentioned or be required to surrender the water lines. He also prayed for a temporary injunction restraining the City from making any more connections in violation of the provision requiring his consent to such connections, and it is from the order denying this prayer that the appeal has been taken.

From evidence adduced at the hearing of the prayer for temporary injunction, the trial court was authorized to find the facts to be as follows: When Mr. Banker made his contract with the District, he and some associates were preparing to, or were attempting to, sell to the public lots in a subdivision which they owned and which was called Lyndale. No further reference will be made to the associates since Mr. Banker seems to have been the principal actor of this group. Mr. Banker made the contract with the District, at least mainly and primarily, to have water available to the lots in Lyndale. It does not appear that he expected to use the water line for any other project or purpose of his own. After making the contract, Mr. Banker constructed the water line into Lyndale and this became known to persons who owned lots in a subdivision called Fairhaven, adjoining Lyndale on the west, and at the insistent request of these persons, Mr. Banker extended the water line from Lyndale into Fairhaven. This was done after the water line had been constructed into and within Lyndale.

The water line referred to above formed a continuous, that is, unbroken system, a part being in Lyndale and Fairhaven subdivisions and a part extending out of Lyndale to connect with the District’s own water mains. The latter part was of 6 inch pipe and extended 1,300 feet from the District’s water line to the north boundary of Lyndale and for 500 or 600 feet more within Lyndale to a point where 2 inch pipe connected with it, extending to lots in Lyndale and then westwards into Fair-haven. Mr. Banker estimated that there was about 4,000 feet of this 2 inch pipe in Fairhaven and that this part of the water line cost about $2.00 a foot to construct. He estimated that there was about 6,000 or 8,000 feet of 2 inch pipe in Lyndale and that this part of the water line also cost about $2.00 a foot to construct. These figures show that about two-thirds of the total water line was in Lyndale. Mr. Banker’s estimate of the cost of the 6 inch line was more indefinite; he said that it was about $4.00 or $5.00 a foot, but he also said that the cost of the 1,300 feet outside of Lyndale was “right around $5,000.”

Lyndale and Fairhaven were not in the District when the contract was made and for several years, four or five years said Mr. Banker, the District complied with the provision of the contract which required Mr. Banker’s consent to connections made to those parts of the water lines outside of Lyndale. Eventually, however, the District extended its boundaries so as to include the water' lines referred to above and all of Lyndale and Fairhaven subdivisions, and after this occurred and because of this the District refused to comply any longer with this provision of the contract; and the District made either 5 or 6 connections in Fairhaven in violation of this provision. Since the abolition of the District, the water lines and Lyndale and Fairhaven’s subdivisions have been within the City, and the City, too, has consistently refused to comply with this provision and has made three connections to the 6 inch pipe outside of Lyndale in violation of this provision.

The purpose of the provision requiring Mr. Banker’s consent to connections made to that part of the water line outside of Lyndale was to enable Mr. Banker to recoup his expense in constructing the water line, or that part thereof outside of Lyndale, for he owned nothing adjoining the water line except in Lyndale. However, Mr. Banker’s testimony shows that the price of *550 a lot in Lyndale included some part of the expense of constructing the water line, at least, we infer, that part of the line adjacent to a particular lot; but the sale of Lyndale did not repay the cost of the line in Fair-haven. Mr. Banker testified, too, that Lyn-dale sales did not reimburse him for the part of the water line which extended from the District’s own water line into Lyndale. However, during the years when the District complied with the provision requiring his consent to connections, he charged each person asking for his consent a sum of money, either $60 for each connection. or for each lot owned by the applicant. 38 connections were made for which he secured payment in this way, and if for each he charged $60 he had received at least $2,280 from this source. All of these 38 connections were in Fairhaven, so of the cost of the line in Fairhaven, estimated by him to be about $8,000, he had received a little more than one-fourth.

At the time of the hearing, Mr. Banker had ceased to own any land in Lyndale, and he owned nothing in Fairhaven at that time. He owns no property served by the water line in suit.

Mr. Banker, immediately after making the contract, had bought an easement from R. L. Latimer on which to construct, and on which he did construct, the 1,300 feet of 6 inch line from the water line of the District to Lyndale. By instrument dated March 23, 1953, Mr. Banker reconveyed this easement to Mr. Latimer and purported to convey to Latimer the 1,300 feet of 6 inch line just mentioned. As we have stated, Mr. Banker- estimated the cost of this part of the 6 inch line at “right around $5,000”.

Within the limits of Lyndale and Fair-haven subdivisions, the water lines are on easements dedicated to the public.

Immediately after the water line was constructed, the District began to run water through it, and the District and its successor, the City, have since continued to do so. The water line is a part of the City’s system for the distribution of water to its citizens just as said line had been a part of the District’s water system; and the District and the City have exercised control over the line as a part of their water systems.

We hold that the trial court was authorized to deny the prayer for a temporary injunction under the facts just summarized.

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Bluebook (online)
295 S.W.2d 548, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/banker-v-city-of-groves-texapp-1956.