Castano v. San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, & Irrigation Co.

147 S.W.3d 444, 2004 WL 839693
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 9, 2004
Docket04-01-00382-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 147 S.W.3d 444 (Castano v. San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, & Irrigation Co.) 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
Castano v. San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, & Irrigation Co., 147 S.W.3d 444, 2004 WL 839693 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

PAUL W. GREEN, Justice.

This case arises from a contract dispute. Appellee San Felipe Agricultural, Manufacturing, & Irrigation Company (“San Felipe”) ran water through a ditch which traversed alongside and through a portion of property which appellant Elvira Casta-ño (“Castaño”) owned. Castaño filed suit against San Felipe and others, including appellees J.M. Stone (“Stone”) and David Bolner (“Bolner”), alleging several causes of action, including trespass and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A summary judgment was granted in favor of appellees Stone and Bolner. The case against San Felipe, however, went to mediation where a draft of a settlement agreement was created and signed by both parties. San Felipe subsequently modified the agreement, putting the terms into a formalized document which Castaño refused to sign, disputing several of the terms. San Felipe filed a motion for summary judgment against Castaño, claiming breach of settlement agreement. Following a hearing, the trial court granted San Felipe’s motion. Castaño now appeals in four issues.

BACKGROUND

San Felipe provides irrigation water to property owners. San Felipe supplies this water through a series of ditches, channeling the water onto the customers’ property. In order to facilitate this process, San Felipe obtained a blanket easement across 1500 acres in Del Rio, Texas. The easement provides for “sufficient ground on each side of the ... ditches as may be required for the widening, straightening or cleaning and repairing of said ditches and the passing along of hands and material for repairing, straightening and cleaning of said ditches.” In 1993, appellant Elvira Castaño purchased a tract of land located within the 1500 acres. Following Casta-no’s purchase of the land, San Felipe continued to access the ditch in order to maintain it, removing debris in order to prevent blockage of the water flow.

In December of 1996, Castaño filed suit against San Felipe and others, including appellees J.M. Stone and David Bolner, alleging trespass, intentional infliction of emotional distress, failure to provide water, and abandonment or adverse possession among other specific complaints. Stone and Bolner filed a motion for summary judgment along with a motion for a more definitive statement regarding the specific acts alleged against them. The trial court ordered Castaño to amend her first original petition to allow Stone and Bolner notice of the allegations against them. Castaño failed to timely amend her pleadings, and the court granted Stone and Bolner’s motion for summary judgment.

The case against San Felipe was sent to mediation, and, on May 29, 1997, Castaño, along with her attorney L. Brent Farney, and San Felipe reached an agreement which was signed by all of the parties involved. In the months that followed, several failed attempts were made to negotiate a final draft of the mediated settlement agreement (“MSA”). San Felipe sought to enforce the MSA, filing a motion for summary judgment as to Castano’s alleged breach. Shortly thereafter, Far-ney withdrew as Castano’s attorney. The court granted San Felipe’s motion, attach *447 ing a copy of the signed MSA and setting out the material terms therein.

Following the court’s decision on the summary judgment, a dispute arose over the location of a lateral easement on the Castaño property. Under the terms of the MSA, all disputes regarding the location of the easement were to be submitted to arbitration. After several attempts to schedule arbitration, the date of February 16, 2000, was finally set. Although Castaño appeared at the arbitration, she did not participate. The arbitrator determined the placement of the ditch to be as per the survey and found that San Felipe was entitled to remove two concrete structures which were erected after the settlement agreement was reached between Castaño and San Felipe. San Felipe then filed a motion to confirm the arbitration award.

Following the filing of San Felipe’s motion, Castaño filed a motion to recuse and disqualify, seeking to remove Judges Lee, Pendergrass, and Thurmond, the only judges in Yal Verde County District Court. The matter was referred to Administrative Judge Stephen Abies who then assigned the issue to Judge Mickey Pennington. Castaño failed to appear for the hearing, and Judge Pennington denied the motion. Judge Lee subsequently set San Felipe’s motion to confirm the arbitration award for a hearing. Castaño filed a second motion to disqualify shortly before this hearing was set to begin. In spite of Castano’s new motion, Judge Lee entered an order confirming the arbitration award.

Castaño now appeals from both summary judgments and the order confirming the arbitration award, as well as from the court’s alleged failure to hear the motions to disqualify.

San Felipe’s Motion For SummaRY Judgment

In her first issue, Castaño argues the trial court erred in granting the summary judgment in favor of San Felipe because she allegedly raised several genuine issues of material fact. In order to obtain a traditional summary judgment, the moving party must show that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c); Randall’s Food Mkts., Inc. v. Johnson, 891 S.W.2d 640, 644 (Tex.1995); Nixon v. Mr. Prop. Mgmt. Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548 (Tex.1985). In reviewing the grant of a summary judgment, we must indulge every reasonable inference and resolve any doubts in favor of the nonmovant. Johnson, 891 S.W.2d at 644; Nixon, 690 S.W.2d at 549. A defendant is entitled to summary judgment if the evidence disproves as a matter of law at least one element of the plaintiffs cause of action. Lear Siegler, Inc. v. Perez, 819 S.W.2d 470, 471 (Tex.1991). Once the movant has established a right to summary judgment, the burden shifts to the nonmovant to present evidence that would raise a genuine issue of material fact. City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Auth., 589 S.W.2d 671, 678 (Tex.1979).

On appeal, Castaño argues that San Felipe is not entitled to summary judgment because she has raised a genuine issue of material fact as to the enforceability of the MSA, as well as to her alleged breach of the MSA. She also contends that, if the summary judgment was erroneously granted, then the arbitration award was erroneously granted.

Enforceability of the Mediated Settlement Agreement

Castaño lists several reasons to support her contention that the mediated settlement agreement presented by San Felipe to the trial court is unenforceable. First, she argues that the agreement is not binding because it contains language contem *448 plating “final documentation”, as well -as “subject to” language. Second, Castaño contends that there are four different versions of the MSA, creating a fact issue as to the parties’ intent to be bound.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
147 S.W.3d 444, 2004 WL 839693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castano-v-san-felipe-agricultural-manufacturing-irrigation-co-texapp-2004.