City of Grapevine v. Grapevine Pool Road Joint Venture

804 S.W.2d 675, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 454, 1991 WL 35800
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 27, 1991
Docket2-89-213-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 804 S.W.2d 675 (City of Grapevine v. Grapevine Pool Road Joint Venture) 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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City of Grapevine v. Grapevine Pool Road Joint Venture, 804 S.W.2d 675, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 454, 1991 WL 35800 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

OPINION

MEYERS, Justice.

This is an appeal taken from a judgment rendered against appellant, City of Grapevine, in a lawsuit filed by appellee, Grapevine Pool Road Joint Venture, in which appellee asserted a claim for damages resulting from an alleged “taking” of interest in real property. The trial court held that a compensable taking had occurred and that the Grapevine City Council violated the Open Meetings Act on three separate dates by closing Pool Road.

Appellant urges the nine following points of error: there was no taking as a matter of law or, alternatively, there was no evidence or insufficient evidence to support the court’s holding that the diminution in value of appellee’s property resulting from appellant’s decision to barricade and ultimately convert Pool Road into a cul-de-sac constituted a damaging or taking under the Texas Constitution and the United States Constitution; there was no evidence or, alternatively, insufficient evidence to support the court’s holding that appellee possesses an easement of access to Pool Road which is a property right not limited to a right of access to the system of public roads; the trial court erred in holding that appellant violated the Texas Open Meetings Act on August 16,1986, September 2,1986, and December 15,1987, because there were no violations or alternatively, there was no evidence or insufficient evidence to support that conclusion; the trial court’s holding that appellant was required to pass an ordinance authorizing the placement of barricades on Pool Road was error since no ordinance was required as a matter of law; there was no evidence or, alternatively, insufficient evidence to support the court’s holding that barricading Pool Road for fifteen months unduly prolonged restriction of access to the property; it was error to hold that the barricades placed on Pool Road on August 15, 1986, were permanent because there was insufficient evidence to support that holding; as a matter of law, the trial court erred in awarding appellees $165,000 because such damages were improperly calculated or, alternatively, were excessive since there is insufficient evidence to support the same; and the trial court erred as a matter of law, in determining that pursuant to Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code § 65.015, the City of Grapevine was required to ascertain and pay damages to appellee prior to the placement of metal barricades.

We reverse and render judgment that appellee take nothing in its lawsuit.

Appellee replies to all of the points of error asserted by appellant and brings two cross-points of error. Appellee argues that the trial court erred in failing to award appellee punitive damages because the evidence properly supported such an award. Appellee also complains that the trial court erred in failing to award appellee its reasonable attorney’s fees and costs pursuant to TEX.REV.CIY.STAT.ANN. art. 6252-17, § 3.

In December of 1984, appellee purchased a 1.9408 acre tract of land located within the City of Grapevine, Texas at the intersection of State Highway 26 and County Road 3038 (more commonly known as “Pool Road”). The property has approximately 681 feet of frontage on Pool Road and 162 feet of frontage on State Highway 26.

In August 1986, the portion of Pool Road located immediately south of appellee’s property was rerouted in order to align Pool Road with Brumlow Road. On August 19, 1986, appellant’s public works director informed appellant’s city council that the rerouting of Pool Road necessitated additional traffic control. Although no for[677]*677mal action was taken on this date, the city council, by consensus, authorized the public works director to barricade Pool Road pending further consultation with city staff and representatives of the Grapevine Independent School District.

On September 2, 1986, during its regular meeting the city council again considered various traffic control alternatives for Pool Road. Once again, no formal action was taken. Following the filing of this lawsuit, appellant’s city council met on December 15, 1987. They voted to remove the barricade from the northern end of Pool Road and create a cul-de-sac at the southern end of this road.

Appellee’s suit, seeking a permanent injunction1 and damages was tried before the court on June 6, 1989. The court held that appellant’s actions in placing barricades adjacent to appellee’s property without passing an ordinance constituted a taking of an easement from appellee as property owner resulting in a loss of access and a diminishment of value in appellee’s property. The court awarded appellee $165,000 in damages, plus prejudgment interest of $51,579.20 and post-judgment interest at the rate of 10% per annum from the date of judgment until it is paid.

Appellant’s first point of error asserts that the trial court erred because there was no taking as a matter of law or, alternatively, there was no evidence to support its holding that the diminution in the value of appellee’s property resulting from the city’s decision to barricade and ultimately convert Pool Road into a cul-de-sac constituted a damaging or a taking under the Texas Constitution and the United States Constitution.

In its findings of fact 9,17, 20, 21, and 24 and conclusions of law 11,12,13,14,15,16, and 19, the trial court found that appellee’s right of access to its property had been materially and substantially impaired as a matter of law.

Findings of fact entered in a case tried to the court are entitled to the same force and dignity as a jury’s verdict upon special issues. Raposa v. Johnson, 693 S.W.2d 43, 45 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1985, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Such findings of fact are reviewable for legal and factual sufficiency of evidence to support them by the same standards applied when reviewing the legal or factual sufficiency of the evidence supporting a jury’s answer to a special issue. Id.

In determining a “no evidence” point, we are to consider only the evidence and inferences which tend to support the finding of the court and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. See Sherman v. First Nat’l Bank, 760 S.W.2d 240, 242 (Tex.1988) (per curiam); Larson v. Cook Consultants, Inc., 690 S.W.2d 567, 568 (Tex.1985) (per curiam). If there is any evidence of probative force to support the finding of the court, the point must be overruled and the finding upheld. In re King’s Estate, 244 S.W.2d 660, 661-62 (1951).

A “no evidence” point of error must and may only be sustained when the record discloses one of the following: (1) a complete absence of evidence of a vital fact; (2) the court is barred by rules of law or evidence from giving weight to the only evidence offered to prove a vital fact; (3) the evidence offered to prove a vital fact is no more than a scintilla of evidence; or (4) the evidence establishes conclusively the opposite of a vital fact. Commonwealth Lloyd’s Ins. Co. v. Thomas, 678 S.W.2d 278, 288 (Tex.App.—Fort Worth 1984, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Calvert, “No Evidence” and “Insufficient Evidence” Points of Error, 38 TEXAS L.REV. 361 (1960).

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City of Grapevine v. Grapevine Pool Road Joint Venture
804 S.W.2d 675 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)

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804 S.W.2d 675, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 454, 1991 WL 35800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-grapevine-v-grapevine-pool-road-joint-venture-texapp-1991.