Gatesco Q.M. Ltd. v. City of Houston

503 S.W.3d 607, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11414, 2016 WL 6134455
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 20, 2016
DocketNO. 14-14-01017-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 503 S.W.3d 607 (Gatesco Q.M. Ltd. v. City of Houston) 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
Gatesco Q.M. Ltd. v. City of Houston, 503 S.W.3d 607, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11414, 2016 WL 6134455 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Kem Thompson Frost, Chief Justice.

This case arises out of a dispute between the City of Houston and a water-service customer. The customer sought declaratory relief based on various purported constitutional violations that allegedly occurred when the City charged the customer a late fee, shut off the customer’s water supply, and required the customer to post a' deposit before restoring water service. The trial court granted summary judgment for the City and-dismissed the customer’s claims. We reverse and remand as to the customer’s substantive-due-course-of-law claims, under the Texas Constitution, request for injunctive relief, and request for attorney’s fees. Wé affirm the remainder of the trial court’s judgment.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Appellant/plaintiff Gatesco Q.M., Ltd. d/b/a Quail Meadows Apartments (hereinafter “Gatesco”), owns an apartment complex knovra as the Quail Meadows-Apartments (hereinafter the “Apartments”) .in Houston, Texas. The only available supplier of water for the Apartments is appel-lee/defendant The City of Houston. On November 28, 2006, Gatesco, a longtime water customer, paid its water bill to the City one day late. The City assessed a ten-percent late fee of $1,020.03 (the “Late Fee”). Gatesco did not want to pay the Late Fee and challenged it in an administrative proceeding. Though unsuccessful in this proceeding, Gatesco still did not pay the Late Fee. The City’s records showed Gatesco as being delinquent for not paying the Late Fee.

To avoid having its water shut off, Ga-tesco filed this lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order preventing the City from shutting off the water. On February 5, 2007, the trial court denied Gates-co’s request for temporary injunction, signing the order at 11:06 a.m. Within two hours—at 12:47 p.m.—Gatesco paid the Late Fee, although the City .says Gatesco paid the fee at the wrong location. The City shut off the water to the Apartments at 1:04 p.m., 17 minutes after Gatesco paid the fee. The City turned the water back on later that same afternoon. But, because the water had been turned off, the . City required a cash security deposit of $35,200, [612]*612an estimate of three months of water bills (the “Security Deposit”). The City later allowed the deposit requirement to be satisfied by posting a bond.

Gatesco challenged the security-deposit requirement in an administrative proceeding. After it was unsuccessful in this proceeding, Gatesco amended its lawsuit to add claims challenging the security-deposit requirement. The trial court dismissed Ga-tesco’s claims based on governmental immunity, and this court affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part. See Gatesco, Q.M., Ltd. v. City of Houston, 333 S.W.3d 338, 347 (Tex. App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, no pet.). This court concluded that governmental immunity did not bar some of Gatesco’s claims. See id. at 349-51.

On remand, the trial court granted the City’s motion for a no-evidence and a traditional summary judgment. In this appeal, Gatesco challenges the trial court’s summary judgment.

II. Issues and Analysis

■ Gatesco asserts that there is a-genuine issue of material fact as- to its requests for declaratory relief regarding the following claims:

(1) the ordinance that allows the City to charge a ten-percent late fee allegedly is an excessive fine and so violates the prohibition against excessive fines contained in article I, section 13 of the Texas Constitution;
(2) the late-fee ordinance, on its face and as applied, is an unauthorized tax that violates article XI,' section 5 of the Texas Constitution;
(3) the City’s levying of the ten-percent late fee against Gatesco violated the substantive-due-process protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution;
(4) the City’s shutting off of the water, requiring a security deposit, and failing to conduct a required credit recheck violated the substantive-due-process protections of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution;
(5) the City’s levying of the ten-percent late fee against Gatesco violated the substantive-due-course-of-law protections of article I, section 19 of the Texas Constitution;1
(6) the City’s shutting off of the water, requiring a security deposit, and failing to conduct a required credit recheck violated the substantive-due-course-of-law protections of article I, section 19 of the Texas Constitution;
(7) the City’s levying of the ten-percent late fee against Gatesco violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the equal-protection provision contained in article I, section 3 of the Texas Constitution;
(8) the City’s shutting off of the water and requiring the Security Deposit violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the equal-protection provision contained in article I, section 3 of the Texas Constitution.

In a traditional motion for summary judgment, if the movant’s motion and [613]*613summary-judgment evidence facially establish its right to judgment as a matter of law, the burden shifts to the nonmovant to raise a genuine, material fact issue sufficient to defeat summary-judgment. M.D. Anderson Hosp. & Tumor Inst. v. Willrich, 28 S.W.3d 22, 23 (Tex. 2000). In reviewing a no-evidence summary judgment, we ascertain whether the nonmovant pointed out summary-judgment evidence raising a genuine issue of fact as to the essential elements attacked in the no-evidence; motion. Johnson v. Brewer & Pritchard, P.C., 73 S.W.3d 193, 206-08 (Tex. 2002). In our de novo review of a trial court’s summary judgment, we consider all the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant,■ crediting evidence favorable to the nonmovant if reasonable jurors could, and disregarding contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not. Mack Trucks, Inc. v. Tamez, 206 S.W.3d 672, 682. (Tex. 2006). The evidence raises a genuine issue of fact if reasonable and fair-minded jurors could differ in their conclusions in light of all of the summary-judgment evidence. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Mayes, 236 S.W.3d 754, 755 (Tex. 2007). When, as in this case, the order, granting summary judgment does not specify the grounds upon which the trial court relied, we must .affirm the summary judgment if any of the independent summary-judgment grounds is meritorious. FM Props. Operating Co. v. City of Austin, 22 S.W.3d 868, 872 (Tex. 2000).

A. Is there a genuine fact issue as to whether the Late Fee is an excessive fine that violates article I, section 13 of the Texas Constitution?

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503 S.W.3d 607, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 11414, 2016 WL 6134455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gatesco-qm-ltd-v-city-of-houston-texapp-2016.