City of Houston v. Roberson

195 S.W.2d 674, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 937
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 1946
DocketNo. 11788.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 195 S.W.2d 674 (City of Houston v. Roberson) 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 Houston v. Roberson, 195 S.W.2d 674, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 937 (Tex. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

This appeal, pursuant to Rule 385(a), (b), and (d), Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, is from an order of the 55th District Court of Harris County, sitting without a jury, denying the appellant, City of Houston, the temporary injunction it had sought against the appellees (Willie Roberson and Roosevelt Parks), wherein the city had prayed that the two named individuals be temporarily enjoined from further proceeding with the construction of a building or structure on “that parcel of ground, lying between Jones Street on the West and Davis Street on, the| East, and between Lot 4 on the south and Lot 6 on the North of Block 2, Fox and Farmer Addition to the City of Houston, which is and has been a public street and thorough fare, the same being a part of Morris Street in the City of Houston, Harris County, Texas; that said tract or parcel of land has been used as a street or thoroughfare by the general public openly, notoriously, and continuously for both pedestrians and vehicular traffic, for a period much longer than ten years next preceding the placing of an obstruction in the said street.”

No separate findings of fact nor conclusions of law were either requested by the parties or filed by the court, and the order itself did not contain any of either sort, but merely recited that the court had read all pleadings, heard all the evidence adduced, and was “of opinion that the City had failed to show any facts, reasons, or grounds for temporary injunction, hence that relief is hereby refused.”

In the circumstances recited, the sole question presented by the appeal is, wheth- *675 rr or not the refusal of the temporary injunction so sought constituted an abuse of the trial court’s discretion. Repka v. American National Ins. Co., 1945, 143 Tex. 542, 186 S.W.2d 977.

The one authority just cited is deemed sufficient as to the legal reaches of this appeal, since, in oral argument, the appellant waived its previously asserted right to a temporary injunction, mandatory in character, and requested this court to determine only whether or not it had been entitled to an ordinary temporary injunction, restraining the further construction of the building — then under way — until a trial below on the facts could be had, in its cause for permanent injunction then pending there.

All the evidence heard by the trial court was that presented by the appellant, the ap-pellees having offered none. The city’s contention, as indicated, being thus in material substance declared in a single point of error in its brief: “The undisputed evidence introduced at the trial of this cause clearly disclosed the establishment of a public street and thoroughfare over and across the property involved in this cause by reason of its adverse, continuous, and uninterrupted use by the general public for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic for a period of time far more than ten years.”

In answer to that presentment the appel-lee Willie Roberson contends that at and prior to the institution of this suit he was and is the owner in fee simple of the lot in controversy, and that he never had any notice of any claim of the City of Houston to such lot as a public street; that he purchased the lot, relying upon the record title thereto, and without notice of any claim of the City of Houston thereto.

He supports his contention that the evidence conclusively shows that no right of way by prescription or limitation across such property was established in the city, but, at the most, merely showed a permissive use over the lot by pedestrians and vehicles, hauling and removing lumber and building materials for the use of an adjoining property owner — Mr. Decota — with these authorities: Sutor v. International & G. N. R. Co., 59 Tex.Civ.App. 73, 125 S.W. 943; Boone v. City of Stephenville, Tex.Civ.App., Waco 1931, 37 S.W.2d 842; Likewise, in Brundrett v. Tarpley, Tex.Civ. App., Waco 1932, 50 S.W.2d 401; Johnson et al. v. Krieg et ux., Tex.Civ.App., Austin 1943, 173 S.W.2d 102, writ refused want of merit; Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Harvey, Tex.Civ.App., Galveston 1940, 146 S.W.2d 227, error dismissed; Heilbron v. St. Louis S. W. R. Co., 52 Tex.Civ.App. 575, 113 S.W. 610, 613; Weber v. Chaney, Tex.Civ.App., San Antonio 1923, 5 S.W.2d 213, error refused.

As this court understands its position, the appellant city does not undertake to deny or combat the indicated claim of the appellee Willie Roberson, that he was in fact, by record title, the owner in fee simple of the property involved; but that its position was below, and is here, that whether or not such appellee was shown to be the owner in fee simple of the property, nevertheless the city, by the undisputed evidence it presented, had shown the establishment over and across the property of such a public street and thoroughfare, by prescriptive use for that purpose for more than 10 years, as not only gave the city a right, but made it its duty in the interest of the public to declare and keep open the easement across the same for street purposes.

It is true that such a claimed right may — by prescription — so ripen into a street easement in favor of the general public as will authorize the city, as its duly empowered governmental authority, to require that it be kept open, under such authorities as these, among others, the city has cited and herein relied upon: Preamble to, and Section 18, of Art. 1175, Vernon’s Texas Civil Statutes; Section 4, Article II, of the Charter of the City of Houston; Dozier v. City, Tex.Civ.App., 253 S.W. 554, writ of error dismissed; Radford Grocery Co. v. City, Tex.Civ.App., 20 S.W.2d 255, affirmed Tex. Com.App., 34 S.W.2d 830; City of Dublin v. Barrett, Tex.Civ.App., 242 S.W. 535, writ of error refused; Phillips v. Texas & P. R. Co., Tex.Com.App., 296 S.W. 877; Tribble v. Dallas Ry. & Terminal Co., Tex.Civ.App., 13 S.W.2d 933, writ of error refused; Boone v. City, 37 S.W.2d 843; Brundrett v. Tarpley, Tex. *676 Civ.App., 50 S.W.2d 401; Foster v. Patton, Tex.Civ.App., 104 S.W.2d 944.

But it is equally as well settled by the authorities cited supra by the appellee, in turn, that all the essential incidents to the establishment of such a super-induced burden upon private property — such as that the use be open, notorious, continuous for ten years, non-permissive, and adverse under a claim of right — must be meticulously alleged and shown, and, if any essential one is missing, the claim for such public control falls.

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Bluebook (online)
195 S.W.2d 674, 1946 Tex. App. LEXIS 937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-houston-v-roberson-texapp-1946.