Boswell v. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.

910 S.W.2d 593, 1995 WL 613578
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 14, 1995
Docket2-94-140-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 910 S.W.2d 593 (Boswell v. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.) 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
Boswell v. Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc., 910 S.W.2d 593, 1995 WL 613578 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

CHUCK MILLER, Justice (Assigned).

This is a condemnation case in which Brazos Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (Brazos Electric) sought to condemn an easement or right-of-way for an electric power transmission line across two tracts of vacant, unimproved land owned by Patricia Dean Boswell (Boswell). Boswell now appeals from the granting of a partial summary judgment in favor of Brazos Electric and a final judgment awarding Boswell $60,735 as compensation for the taking of her property. Boswell raises seven points of error that generally concern the presence of genuine issues of material fact that preclude summary judgment and the admission and exclusion of evidence at trial.

We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Brazos Electric is a nonprofit, electric cooperative organized under Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat. Ann. art. 1528b (Vernon 1980 & Supp.1995) for the purpose of rural electrification. Id. § 3. On May 23, 1990, Brazos Electric filed an application with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to permit construction of a new electric transmission line to serve portions of southeast Parker County, Texas. 1 *598 The application advanced three alternate routes for the proposed line, only one of which was both economically and environmentally feasible according to Brazos Electric’s impact study.

After the PUC approved the application on March 21,1991, Brazos Electric initiated condemnation proceedings under its power of eminent domain to acquire all easements or rights-of-way necessary for the completion of the project. See Tex.Rev.Civ.StatAnn. art. 1528b, § 4(7), (11) (Vernon 1980). On July 10, 1992, Brazos Electric filed its original petition for condemnation to acquire' a “right-of-way easement” across property owned by Boswell, George Beggs, III, and John Henry Dean, III. 2 The subject property, known as the Dean Ranch, is comprised of two separate tracts of land — a North and South tract. On August 10,1992, a three-member panel of Special Commissioners returned an award of $123,400 for the damages occasioned by the condemnation of a “right-of-way easement” across both the North and South tracts for the purpose of constructing the proposed electric transmission line. Both parties objected to the damage assessment.

On May 7, 1993, Brazos Electric filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the grounds that the “only contested issue remaining in this cause is the value of [Boswell’s] property taken by [Brazos Electric] in this proceeding, and the damages to the remainder of [Boswell’s] property, if any.” The trial court granted Brazos Electric’s motion for partial summary judgment and set the issue of value for jury trial. The jury subsequently awarded Boswell damages to-talling $60,735 for the change in fair market value of the North and South tracts occasioned by the right-of-way.

PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT

In her first and second points of error, Boswell contends that the trial court erred in granting Brazos Electric’s motion for partial summary judgment. Specifically, Boswell argues that there are genuine issues of material fact concerning whether Brazos Electric abused its discretion by constructing the electric transmission line (i) in violation of two PUC orders and (ii) in violation of internal company policy.

A. Standard of Review

In a summary judgment case, the issue on appeal is whether the movant met their summary judgment burden by establishing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Tex.R.Civ.P. 166a(c); Cate v. Dover Corp., 790 S.W.2d 559, 562 (Tex.1990); City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Auth., 589 S.W.2d 671, 678 (Tex.1979). The burden of proof is on the movant, Acker v. Texas Water Comm’n, 790 S.W.2d 299, 301-02 (Tex.1990), and all doubts about the existence of a genuine issue to a material fact are resolved against movant. Cate, 790 S.W.2d at 562; Great Am. Reserve Ins. Co. v. San Antonio Plumbing Supply Co., 391 S.W.2d 41, 47 (Tex.1965). Therefore, we must view the evidence and its reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Id.

In deciding whether there is a material fact issue precluding summary judgment, all conflicts in the evidence will be disregarded and the evidence favorable to the nonmovant will be accepted as true. Montgomery v. Kennedy, 669 S.W.2d 309, 311 (Tex.1984); Farley v. Prudential Ins. Co., 480 S.W.2d 176, 178 (Tex.1972). Evidence that favors the movant’s position will not be considered unless it is uncontroverted. Great Am. Reserve Ins. Co., 391 S.W.2d at 47.

B. Summary Judgment Evidence

In his affidavit attached to Brazos Electric’s motion for partial summary judgment, Albin Petter stated that on March 20, 1991, the PUC issued a “Final Order” approving Brazos Electric’s application to construct a new transmission line that would, in part, traverse the North and South tracts. At the *599 time of the condemnation, easements for a Texas Utilities Electric Company (TU Electric) transmission line and a Diamond Shamrock pipeline already existed on the subject property. Accordingly, Finding of Fact No. 3 of the PUC’s Final Order states, “3. The right-of-way for the proposed [Brazos Electric] line will be parallel with and immediately adjacent to an existing Texas Utilities Electric Company 345 KV transmission line.”

This directive was followed with regard to the North tract. However, this dispute centers only on the South tract where the Brazos Electric transmission line diverges from the TU Electric line at the northern-most boundary of the tract and progresses due south toward the proposed Aledo substation site. In effect the line dissects the tract into two relatively equal halves. Hence, Boswell contends that Brazos Electric abused its discretion by not complying with the PUC order that she alleges mandated that the entire Brazos Electric transmission line parallel the existing TU Electric line. In response, Brazos Electric argues that it constructed the transmission line in question exactly as contemplated in its application to the PUC, which was purportedly approved as applied for.

The application itself recommended a proposed route that extended:

Approximately 9.19 miles (14.79 km) in length originating at [Brazos Electric’s] existing Dicey substation.

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910 S.W.2d 593, 1995 WL 613578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boswell-v-brazos-electric-power-cooperative-inc-texapp-1995.