City of Dublin v. Fort Worth & R. G. Ry. Co.

292 S.W. 591
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 22, 1926
DocketNo. 69.
StatusPublished

This text of 292 S.W. 591 (City of Dublin v. Fort Worth & R. G. Ry. 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
City of Dublin v. Fort Worth & R. G. Ry. Co., 292 S.W. 591 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinions

DITTLER, J.

The city of Dublin, appellant, instituted this suit against the appellee, alleging that on a certain date appellee, through its general manager and vice, president, approached the city council of the city of Dublin, and proposed that if the city council would enter an order closing the crossing between Sheridan and Bennett street, appel-lee would erect, on the lot adjoining the cotton mill, a roundhouse and machine shops with a capacity for ten locomotives. Appellant did pass such an order closing said crossing on Sheridan and Bennett street, with the understanding, however, that appellee should be its own judge as to the legality of same. That it was further agreed that the city council would use its influence with the school board of the Dublin independent school district to secure for appellee a parcel of land 125' by 27O' off the east end of said school ground. As a consideration therefor, appellee was to erect roundhouse and machine shops and establish a division point at Dublin for freight. That the city council did secure said lot from the school board in exchange for another lot which had been purchased by appellee for that purpose. That said machine shops were never equipped and said roundhouse was never used for storing engines, and a division point has never been established at Dublin by appellee. That in constructing said roundhouse the said defendant made an excavation covering a territory in area of approximately 800' by 600' and from 8 to 10 feet deep, and below the surface of the adjacent property, and built said roundhouse in said excavation; the walls of said roundhouse extending up above the excavation and the surrounding territory. That although said defendant bound itself to the plaintiff to maintain and operate said roundhouse and repair shop and to maintain in connection therewith a freight and division point, but it has nevertheless refused to maintain said roundhouse, and the same is now wholly and totally unused for any purpose by said railroad, and the defendant is now engaged in tearing down said roundhouse and threatening to ship the same out of the city, and that they will continue to do so unless they are restrained by this honorable court. That if appellee is permitted to tear down said building, it will leave unfilled, and unprotected, the excavation which it had made in which to erect said building; and that said excavation is lower than the surrounding territory, and consequently will be filled with water, causing mosquitoes and flies to be propagated and hatched therein; and that the same will become a nuisance.

Appellant further alleges that if said roundhouse and machine shops had been maintained it would have increased the population of Dublin 150 families, and that the pay roll for the appellee Vould haVe amounted to approximately $40,000 per month; that property valuations in Dublin would have been thereby enhanced. Appellant further alleges that if appellee is permitted to remove said roundhouse property values will decline and the damage to the city and citizens w'ill be irreparable. That this plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law to prevent the breach of the contract of said defendant to *592 operate and maintain said roundhouse and repair shop and freight division, and that the said contract is valid and supported by a consideration deemed valuable in law, and the plaintiff has exhausted its legal remedies to prevent the removal of said roundhouse, and that it has no adequate remedy at law for redress of the injury and damage that the defendant is now inflicting and will continue to inflict, and that said city and its inhabitants will suffer great and irreparable damage and injury unless an injunction is issued.

Wherefore, plaintiff respectfully prays that temporary writ of injunction be issued restraining the defendant, its agents, servants, and employees, from tearing down or removing or demolishing said roundhouse, and requiring and commanding the said defendant, its agents, servants, and employees, to operate and maintain said roundhouse and repair shops and a freight division on its said road, as the defendant obligated and bound itself to do, and commanding and requiring said defendant to restore the material torn from said roundhouse to' its former condition and maintain the same, and restrain the defendant from removing any of said material from the city of Dublin, or shipping the same out of said city.

The defendant answered by general demurrer and special exceptions, and specially pleaded a general denial, and especially denied that it ever agreed with plaintiff to construct and keep any shops or roundhouse in the city of Dublin, and denied that any valid consideration moved to it for the erection and maintenance of a roundhouse in the city of Dublin. Defendant further pleaded that said roundhouse was partially constructed and was never finished and was never operated. Defendant further pleaded that business had so declined that it would not pay to operate said roundhouse and machine shops at Dublin; that they had machine shops and roundhouses at Fort Worth and Brownwood; that it would cost at least $100,000 a year to maintain shops and roundhouse at Dublin; that the company was already operating under a loss of more than $400,000 per year, and that by maintaining said roundhouse and machine shops at Dublin it would place them at extra expense and unnecessary expense upon interstate commerce, which is a violation of the laws of the United States, relative to interstate commerce, and particularly the act of Congress known and designated as the Transportation 'Act of 1920.

The following agreement appeared in the record:

“It is agreed between the parties to this cause that about the 12th day of February, 1921, a suit was filed in the district court of Erath county, Tex., by Luke Barrett et al., in the nature of a suit for injunction to restrain and enjoin the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway Company from closing a certain street in the city of Dublin, known as Bennett street and Sheridan street. That thereafter that suit was tried in the district court of Erath county, Tex., and a judgment was rendered in that case granting a perpetual injunction restraining and enjoining the 'Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railway Company and the city of Dublin from closing and keeping closed the cossing over the tracks along and across Sheridan and Bennett street. The original judgment in that case being offered in evidence. That that case was appealed and affirmed by the courts and became a final judgment in that cause.”

The plaintiff’s petition was presented to the. district judge, and a temporary injunction was granted and issued restraining the defendant from tearing down and removing its roundhouse properties in the city of Dublin.

On a trial of the case the court entered judgment dissolving the temporary injunction theretofore issued and denied the plaintiff’s prayer for injunction, restraining and enjoining the defendant from taking down or removing the roundhouse building situated in the city of Dublin. The court also decreed that the defendant, if it moved said property, was to fill up certain excavations and to vacate the street occupied by it belonging to the city of Dublin, and to place the same in as good condition as when taken possession of by the defendant. The court further adjudged, except as provided in the judgment, that the plaintiff take nothing by its suit. Appellant duly filed its petition for writ of error, and appellee waived citation thereon, and the case is now before this court for review.

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Bluebook (online)
292 S.W. 591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-dublin-v-fort-worth-r-g-ry-co-texapp-1926.