Bragg v. City of Dallas

605 S.W.2d 669, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3820
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 6, 1980
Docket20299
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 605 S.W.2d 669 (Bragg v. City of Dallas) 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.

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Bragg v. City of Dallas, 605 S.W.2d 669, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3820 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

GUITTARD, Chief Justice.

Weldon Bragg sued the City of Dallas for damages to his airplane which occurred when he was moving it along a taxi-way at Dallas Love Field, a municipal airport. The City obtained a summary judgment on the ground of governmental immunity. We affirm.

The only summary- judgment proof offered by the City was an affidavit stating that Dallas Love Field is a municipal airport established and maintained under the provisions of article 46d-l et seq., Tex.Rev. Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon 1969). Consequently, we accept the allegations in plaintiff’s petition as stating all other facts material to this appeal.

Plaintiff alleged that he flew his aircraft to Love Field to attend a flight instructor’s lecture, that he landed after dark, and that as he was taxiing to the building where the lecture was to be held he “ran over an 18 inch high steel angle iron which had been placed or installed 16 feet from the edge of the asphalt taxi -way along with a series of several other angle irons, all of which were unmarked and unlighted and, therefore, not visible.” The petition avers that the City owed a duty to maintain the taxi -way in a reasonably safe condition for airplane traffic and that the action of city employees “in deliberately placing unlighted and unmarked 18 inch angle irons in and upon the taxi way constituted a dangerous physical obstruction which created a hazardous and unsafe condition and rendered the taxi-way unsafe for traffic over and upon same” and that such condition constituted a “nuisance in fact” and was the cause of damage to plaintiff’s airplane. Alternatively, plaintiff alleges that the City was negligent in placing the angle irons in the taxi -way without proper lighting or marking.

In his first point plaintiff asserts that the immunity of the City for acts in furtherance of its governmental functions does not apply because the petition alleges that the City deliberately placed or maintained a dangerous physical obstruction rendering the taxi way unsafe for traffic. He relies on Crow v. City of San Antonio, 157 *671 Tex. 250, 301 S.W.2d 628 (1957), and City of Austin v. Daniels, 160 Tex. 628, 335 S.W.2d 753 (1960), in both of which the supreme court held that even though the particular act causing the injury was done in the exercise of the governmental function of regulating traffic on the streets, the immunity did not apply.

As we read those opinions, they are based on the city’s proprietary duty to maintain its streets in a safe condition for use by the public. No such proprietary duty is involved here. As the City points out, article 46d-15, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. (Vernon 1969), declares the maintenance and operation of municipal airports to be “governmental functions,” and the supreme court has held that this provision is effective to negate any proprietary duty and, therefore, to establish governmental immunity to tort liability for damages resulting from the maintenance and operation of such airports. City of Corsicana v. Wren, 159 Tex. 202, 317 S.W.2d 516 (1958). Consequently, we hold that the allegations of the petition establish as a matter of law that the City has no liability for damages resulting from any unsafe condition of the taxi-way.

In his second point, plaintiff asserts that his petition alleges a nuisance, which is an exception to the rule of immunity for acts done in the exercise of a governmental function. The only case cited in support of this contention is Gonzalez v. City of El Paso, 316 S.W.2d 176 (Tex.Civ.App.-El Paso 1978, no writ). That case, however, supports the position of the City of Dallas here, since it denies liability of the city for an act of a policeman and states that “a negligence case cannot be converted into a nuisance merely by so pleading.”

We have made our own search of the authorities to determine the scope of the claimed “nuisance” exception to the rule of municipal immunity to tort liability in connection with governmental functions. We find that the only exceptions to that immunity arise when the immunity is expressly waived, as by the Tort Claims Act, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6252-19 (Vernon 1970) and by article I, section 17 of the Texas Constitution, which provides that no person’s property shall be taken, damaged or destroyed for a public purpose without adequate compensation. See Steele v. City of Houston, 603 S.W.2d 786, 23 Tex.Sup.Ct.J. 507 (July 16, 1980). We find no other basis for a “nuisance” exception to the immunity rule. The constitutional exception has been applied to “nuisances” in the sense of maintenance of facilities or conditions on municipal property which interfere with the enjoyment of neighboring land, as by a sewage disposal plant or refuse dump which produces offensive odors. City of Abilene v. Downs, 367 S.W.2d 153, 158 (Tex.1963); Brewster v. City of Forney, 223 S.W. 175, 177 (Tex.Com.App.1920, judgmt adopted); see City of Fort Worth v. Crawford, 74 Tex. 404, 12 S.W. 52 (1889).

The “nuisance” exception has not been extended beyond invasions of the rights of neighboring landowners. Negligent maintenance on municipal land of a condition dangerous to persons on the land remains within the immunity. City of Houston v. George, 479 S.W.2d 257, 259 (Tex.1972); Gotcher v. City of Farmersville, 137 Tex. 12, 151 S.W. 565 (1941); City of Texarkana v. Taylor, 490 S.W.2d 191 (Tex.Civ.App.-Texarkana 1973, writ ref’d n. r. e.). Occasionally courts of civil appeals have applied the term “nuisance” to a dangerous condition negligently permitted by a city in the performance of its proprietary functions. City of Houston v. Schilling, 235 S.W.2d 929, 932 (Tex.Civ.App. Galveston, 1950) aff’d, 150 Tex. 387, 240 S.W.2d 1010 (1951); Kling v. City of Austin, 62 S.W. 689, 690 (Tex.Civ.App.1933, no writ). The supreme court, however, seems to have been careful to avoid the term when speaking of a hazard to public use of the streets. See Jezek v. City of Midland, 605 S.W.2d 544, 23 Tex.Sup.CtJ. 518 (1980); City of Houston v. Schilling, supra. In Wiggins v. City of Fort Worth, 299 S.W. 468, 472 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1927), aff’d, 5 S.W.2d 761

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