Galveston County Municipal Utility District No. 3 v. City of League City

960 S.W.2d 875, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 6107, 1997 WL 819733
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 26, 1997
DocketNo. 14-96-01385-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 960 S.W.2d 875 (Galveston County Municipal Utility District No. 3 v. City of League City) 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
Galveston County Municipal Utility District No. 3 v. City of League City, 960 S.W.2d 875, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 6107, 1997 WL 819733 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

AMIDEI, Justice.

Galveston County Municipal Utility District No. 8 (District) appeals a partial summary judgment in favor of appellee (City) holding an addendum to a prior utility agreement was unenforceable as a matter of law. In one point of error, appellant contends the trial court erred in granting the City’s motion for summary judgment because: (1) the City failed to establish the “equal dignity rule” applies, and (2) there is a material fact issue concerning estoppel of the City to deny the validity of the addendum. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND.

The District and the City entered into a utility agreement in 1978 that provided the District would build a water distribution, sanitary sewer and drainage system to be sold upon completion to the City. To service the bond debt, the 1978 agreement provided the City would pay the District forty percent (40%) of the ad valorem taxes collected by the City in future years after deducting the costs of collection. The City’s obligation to pay the District ended when the bonds issued by the District were discharged. This utility agreement was approved by an ordinance of the City dated April 13,1978. By resolution in 1981, the City thereafter approved an amendment to the 1978 utility agreement that increased the payment by the City of ad valorem taxes from forty percent (40%) to sixty percent (60%). The District sued the City alleging the City has failed to comply with this agreement and has made “inappropriate deductions unrelated to the operations” of the water and sewer system. In its pleadings, the District asked for a declaratory judgment holding: (1) the calculations of net revenues by the City did not comply with the agreement, and (2) the City owed net revenues to the District as calculated without the “unauthorized deductions.” The District also alleged the City’s failure and refusal to properly calculate the net revenues as required by the agreement was a breach of contract.

II. SUMMARY JUDGMENT.

The City filed its motion for summary judgment claiming the 1981 amendment to the utility agreement was unenforceable because the original 1978 agreement was passed by a city ordinance and the 1981 amendment was passed by a resolution in violation of the “equal dignity rule” as set forth in City of Hutchins v. Prasifka, 450 S.W.2d 829 (Tex.1970). The District responded alleging the equal dignity rule does not apply to contract cases and Prasifka applied to amendments by resolution to zoning ordinances. The District also alleged the City was estopped from contesting the validity of the resolution approving the 1981 amendment because a “manifest injustice” will occur if the 1981 amendment is not enforced against the City.

A. Standard of Review.

In order to prevail on summary judgment, the movant must disprove at least one of the [877]*877essential elements of each of the plaintiffs causes of action. Lear Siegler, Inc. v. Perez, 819 S.W.2d 470, 471 (Tex.1991). This burden requires the movant to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985). In determining whether a material fact issue exists to preclude summary judgment, evidence favoring the nonmovant is taken as true, and all reasonable inferences are indulged in favor of the nonmovant. Id.; see also Doe v. Boys Clubs of Greater Dallas, Inc., 907 S.W.2d 472, 477 (Tex.1995). Any doubt is resolved in favor of the nonmovant. Nixon, 690 S.W.2d at 548-49; see also Doe, 907 S.W.2d at 477.

Where the nonmovant opposes a summary judgment based upon an affirmative defense, the nonmovant must produce sufficient summary judgment evidence to raise a question of fact as to each element of the affirmative defense in order to avoid summary judgment. Brownlee v. Brownlee, 665 S.W.2d 111, 112 (Tex.1984); City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671, 678-79 (Tex.1979). The movant is not required to negate every possible issue of law and fact that could have been raised by the nonmov-ant, but rather the burden of raising and producing sufficient evidence with respect to affirmative defenses is on the nonmovant. Id. at 678-79.

Where summary judgment evidence raises no more than surmise or suspicion of a fact in issue, no genuine issue of fact exists to defeat summary judgment. Booth v. Cathey, 893 S.W.2d 715, 719 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 1995) rev’d on other grounds, 900 S.W.2d 339 (Tex.1995). For summary judgment purposes, an issue is conclusively established if ordinary minds cannot differ as to the conclusion to be drawn from the evidence. Bookman v. Bolt, 881 S.W.2d 771, 774 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1994, writ denied).

B. Applicable Law.

1. The operation of a sewer system by a municipality in Texas is the exercise of a governmental function. Pittman v. City of Amarillo, 598 S.W.2d 941, 945 (Tex.Civ.App.-Amarillo 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.). When discharging a governmental function, a municipality, as an agent of the State, is exercising the State’s police power, which is a grant of authority from the people to the government for the protection of the health, safety, comfort and welfare of the public. Id. As such, the police power cannot be abdicated or bargained away “and is inalienable, even by express grant.” Id.

2. Validity of the 1981 amendment. The City cites City of Hutchins v. Prasifka, 450 S.W.2d 829 (Tex.1970) in support of its argument that the 1981 amendment was unenforceable because it was approved by a resolution which cannot change the 1978 utility agreement approved by an ordinance. In Prasifka, the supreme court (citing City of San Antonio v. Micklejohn, 89 Tex. 79, 33 S.W. 735 (1895)) pointed out the distinctions between the functions of ordinances and resolutions:

It takes a law to repeal a law. The act which destroys should be of equal dignity . with that which establishes. A resolution proper is not a law [citation omitted]. A legislative body may in that form [by resolution] express an opinion, may govern its own procedure within the limitations imposed upon it by its constitution or charter, and, in case it have ministerial functions, may direct their performance; but it cannot adopt that mode of procedure in making laws where the power which created it has commanded that it shall legislate in a different form.

Id. at 832.

In Prasifka,

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960 S.W.2d 875, 1997 Tex. App. LEXIS 6107, 1997 WL 819733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galveston-county-municipal-utility-district-no-3-v-city-of-league-city-texapp-1997.