Fort Worth Concrete Co. v. State

391 S.W.2d 818, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2760
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 21, 1965
DocketNo. 16635
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 391 S.W.2d 818 (Fort Worth Concrete Co. v. State) 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
Fort Worth Concrete Co. v. State, 391 S.W.2d 818, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2760 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

LANGDON, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order of dismissal in a condemnation proceeding. For convenience the parties will be designated as follows: Fort Worth Concrete Company as “appellant”; E. F. Abbott and wife Eula, E. E. Newman and wife Ida as “Abbott and Newman”, and the State of Texas and Tar-rant County as “appellees”.

The appellees sought to acquire 9.889 acres of land in Tarrant County for highway purposes. Abbott and Newman, the appellant, and some taxing authorities who later filed disclaimers, were alleged to be the owners of the property. Following a [819]*819hearing before special commissioners an award of $15,000 was made and the amount deposited in the registry of the Court by ap-pellees. Objections to the award were filed by Abbott and Newman and the appellant.

Thereafter the Court in response to ap-pellees’ petition granted them possession of the property and ordered appellant’s personal property to be removed therefrom. The appellees then filed a motion for a nonsuit as to the appellant and the latter filed its answer. Following a hearing on the motion the Court entered its order on December 14, 1964, granting the nonsuit and dismissing the appellant from the case.

After the order was signed the appellant requested the Court for permission to read its pleadings to the jury and to participate in the trial by presenting evidence in support of its pleadings. The Court refused the request stating that appellant had been completely out of the case since announcement of its ruling on December 11, 1964 granting the nonsuit and dismissal.

A jury trial was had between the parties remaining in the proceedings. The single issue submitted was the reasonable market value of the 9.889 acre tract of land on June 19, 1964 exclusive of all improvements, and subject to the month to month lease with appellant. The jury answered $35,000. On the basis of this finding, Abbott and Newman recovered judgment against appellees in the amount of $35,600, including interest. The Court ordered that such judgment be partially satisfied by payment to Abbott and Newman of the $15,000 on deposit.

Appellant appealed from the order dismissing it from the case and that portion of the judgment ordering the $15,000 deposit paid to Abbott and Newman.

Appellant contends that the Court erred in dismissing it because (1) appellees having secured possession of the property and with no intention of abandonment had reached the “point of no return”; (2) such action was manifestly unjust and prejudicial; (3) appellant’s filing of objections to the award was in effect the institution of a law suit by it and the County Court at Law had the sole and exclusive jurisdiction to hear such suit and determine all issues therein; and (4) the appellees’ filing of the statement seeking condemnation naming it as a party was an admission of its interest which ap-pellees were now estopped to deny and the Court had no jurisdiction to decide or to assume that appellant had no title.

By its fifth and final point the appellant contends that the portion of the judgment ordering withdrawal of the $15,000 deposit and its payment to Abbott and Newman denied to it the security guaranteed by Art. 1, § 17 of the Texas Constitution, Vernon’s Ann.St. We affirm.

Since the record is limited to the testimony and exhibits presented on the motion for nonsuit and dismissal of the appellant, the only question presented on this appeal is the propriety of the Court’s order of dismissal.

Prior to June 19, 1964, the appellant was in possession and occupied the 9.889 acre tract under a lease agreement which expired in January, 1963. An option for an additional two years was never exercised. It is stipulated that appellant occupied the premises on a month to month basis after January, 1963. All rentals had been paid to some period in June, 1964. There is no evidence that any rentals were paid by appellant to anyone thereafter, although under the evidence the property was used and occupied by the appellant until sometime in October of 1964.

A brick veneer building, a wash or batch plant, a railroad spur track, and a tin building were located on the property. These improvements were the exclusive property of appellant under the terms and provisions of the original lease agreement. Abbott and Newman had no interest therein. At some time prior to June 19, 1964, the brick veneer building was vacated by appellant. Preston M. Carter, appellant’s Vice President-General Manager, testified that his [820]*820company was in possession of the brick office building on June 19, 1964, but was not using it. That in contemplation of the condemnation suit the appellant built a new office at another location and had moved into it. The appellant was likewise in possession of all remaining improvements on June 19, 1964, and used or operated same until some time during the month of October, 1964, at which time it removed all improvements from the property except the brick veneer office building. During the interval between June 19, 1964,.and October, 1964, someone had stripped the brick veneer building down to the four bare walls. The record is silent as to who stripped the building.

Roy Stanley, manager of appellant’s land department, testified — that before the expiration of the first two year term he called Abbott on the telephone and said, “ ‘Slick, this lease is going to be up on the 2d, what do we want to do about it’ ? He said, ‘Well, keep on paying the rent until the highway department runs you off, it’s all right with me if it’s all right with you.’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s sure all right with me.’ So, from that point on we just figured we had a lease on it till the highway department come in there and moved us off. * * * I told him we wanted to stay on there until we got run off.”

It appears from this testimony that appellant considered its lease and any rights under it would be terminated as of the time the appellee entered upon the property and moved them off.

The State Highway Department notified the appellant by letter dated June 19, 1964, that the amount of $15,000 had been deposited in the registry of the Court and that, “The depositing of this award entitles the State of Texas to possession of this land; therefore, we respectfully demand that you have all the improvements on this property belonging to (appellants) * * * removed from this property on or before July 20, 1964.” On June 24, 1964, Abbott and Newman filed their objections to the award of the special commissioners and appellant filed its objections on July 1, 1964, and on the same date requested the Highway Department to designate the improvements to be removed. The latter by its letter of July 8, 1964, informed appellant’s counsel it expected appellant to remove all of its property. Thereafter on July 22, 1964, the ap-pellees filed their petition for a writ of possession and for the right to remove all improvements from the property. The trial court entered its order granting possession and ordering the appellant’s personal property be removed.

“In the absence of a special stipulation to the contrary, fixtures placed upon the demised premises by the tenant are personal property, subject, however, to become parts of the realty, if not removed by him during the time allowed him by law for their removal. By agreement they may become the property of the landlord, subject only to the lease; or they may be made personalty, and, as between the landlord and tenant, the absolute property of the latter.” Wright v. Macdonell, 30 S.W. 907, (Supreme Court of Texas, 1895) ; Davis v.

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Related

Porter v. State
605 S.W.2d 553 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Fort Worth Concrete Company v. State
416 S.W.2d 518 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Fort Worth Concrete Company v. State
400 S.W.2d 314 (Texas Supreme Court, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
391 S.W.2d 818, 1965 Tex. App. LEXIS 2760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-worth-concrete-co-v-state-texapp-1965.