County Commissioners Court of Dallas County v. Williams

638 S.W.2d 218, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5068
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 12, 1982
Docket11-82-048-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 638 S.W.2d 218 (County Commissioners Court of Dallas County v. Williams) 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
County Commissioners Court of Dallas County v. Williams, 638 S.W.2d 218, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5068 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

McCLOUD, Chief Justice.

Roger G. Williams, a licensed Texas attorney, sued the Commissioners Court of Dallas County, Garry Weber, County Judge, and Jim Jackson, Nancy Judy, Jim Tyson and Roy Orr, Commissioners of Dallas County, attacking the allocation of court space to district courts trying civil cases. Plaintiff sought review of space allocation orders issued by the commissioners court, alleging that the defendants had embarked on a course of discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious policies of giving preferential courtroom space to criminal courts. Plaintiff alleged that defendants forced courtroom sharing, failed to provide courtrooms, provided inadequate courtrooms, and scattered the location of civil district courtrooms over several buildings. Also under review is the order of the trial court, reassigning various courts to different quarters, enjoining renovation efforts initiated by defendants and requiring defendants to appropriate funds to pay expenditures necessitated by the order.

The trial court permitted plaintiff to add five civil district judges as involuntary plaintiffs. Plaintiff alleged that the involuntary plaintiffs were affected by inadequate facilities, and that they were unable to become voluntary plaintiffs because of political pressures.

The trial court also permitted the intervention of Burt Barr, Ross Hardin, Robert Hickman and A1 Maddox, who sought a declaratory judgment urging that defendants were violating Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann. art. 1702h (Vernon 1962), governing the operation of county law libraries. 1

After all parties had closed, the trial court dismissed Burt Barr as a party to the suit, and then appointed Barr “Receiver” in the judgment with express “power and authority to oversee the carrying out” of the court’s orders to the “Commissioners Court” and Barr was directed to report back, “from time to time” to the trial court as to the progress of “the Defendants in complying” with the trial court’s order. 2

The trial court’s order provides in part:

ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that:
1. The present assignment of Court space in Dallas County, Texas for District Courts is, as a matter of law, inadequate, unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory and void.
1. That the Defendants shall carry out the following orders of the Court and this Court orders the County Commissioners Court of Dallas County, Texas to relocate the County Courts of Criminal Appeals and their staffs to Rooms 300 and 305 of the Records Building as soon as those *220 facilities are complete but in no event later than April 12, 1982;
2. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 291st District Court to the Court space now occupied by County Court of Criminal Appeals No. 1 on the 4th Floor of the Government Center;
3. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 292nd District Court to the Court space now occupied by Justice of the Peace, Precinct 8, Place 2 on the 5th Floor of the Government Center;
4. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 101st District Court to the Court space now occupied by the 291st District Court on the 5th Floor of the Government Center;
5. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 14th District Court to the Court space now occupied by the 292nd District Court on the 5th Floor of the Government Center;
6. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 160th District Court to the Court space formerly occupied by the 68th District Court on the 2nd Floor of the Government Center when the space is restored;
7. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 95th District Court to the Court space formerly occupied by the 95th District Court on the 2nd Floor of the Government Center when the space is restored;
8. The Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 191st District Court to the Court space now occupied by the County Criminal Court of Appeals No. 2 on the 4th Floor of the Government Center;
9. That the Defendants are ORDERED to assign the 298th District Court to the Court space now occupied by the 191st District Court on the 4th Floor of the Records Building Annex.
Such Orders embodied in numbers three through nine above shall be carried out immediately after number two above is carried out.
10. The Defendants are hereby enjoined from taking any action to change the former 95th and 68th Courtrooms on the Second Floor of the Government Center to Court of Appeals office space; and this injunction specifically includes advertising for bids, accepting bids, letting contracts or otherwise committing public monies regarding such space without authority of this Court.
11. That the Defendants are ORDERED to immediately commence restoring the the space on the Second Floor of the Government Center formerly occupied by the 68th and 95th District Courts to the condition as a District Courtroom when it was occupied by the 68th and 95th District Courts; that such restoration shall proceed with all speed and be completed prior to May 15, 1982.
12. That this court recommends that the Defendants immediately relocate the Justices and Staff of the Court of Appeals which are now occupying the suites on the northwest quadrant of the Second Floor of the Government Center to the Sixth Floor of the Records Building;
13. That this Court finds that the Court of Appeals needs a facility constructed to its needs and its present facility is clearly inadequate.
14. That the Defendants are ordered to appropriate and raise sufficient funds to pay the expenditures and to provide sufficient materials and manpower to carry out this Order.

The trial court denied defendants’ motion for an order granting supersedeas or for an order staying the enforcement of the judgment pending appeal and ordered the defendants to proceed with the terms of the judgment “at once.” On April 14,1982, this court issued its order vacating the trial court’s order denying supersedeas and further ordered that Judge Walker stay the enforcement of the judgment. See Weber v. Walker, 591 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. Civ. App.—Dallas 1979, no writ).

We first determine if the order entered and appealed is a final appealable judgment. The trial court’s twelve page order is designated as “Corrected Temporary Order and Declaratory Judgment.” The order concludes:

*221 This is not a Final Order. This Court finds that the implementation of this Order will save the taxpayers of Dallas County, Texas, an amount in excess of $800,000.00.

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Bluebook (online)
638 S.W.2d 218, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5068, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-commissioners-court-of-dallas-county-v-williams-texapp-1982.