General Tire & Rubber Co. v. Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co.

102 S.W.2d 1086
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 22, 1937
DocketNo. 13484
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 102 S.W.2d 1086 (General Tire & Rubber Co. v. Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co.) 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
General Tire & Rubber Co. v. Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 102 S.W.2d 1086 (Tex. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

BROWN, Justice.

This is an equitable proceeding brought by appellee, Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Company, against General Tire & Rubber Company and Logan Tire Company, Incorporated, appellants.

The suit is for an injunction to restrain appellants from building an addition to, or an extension of, the improvements already erected upon the east end of a lot in the City of Fort Worth, owned by General Tire & Rubber Company and occupied by Logan Tire Company, Incorporated; the appellee being the lessee occupying the west end of the lot, under a written lease.

The facts are: The lot is in the shape of a “flatiron.” It is made by three streets. Burnett street, which runs in a northerly and southerly direction, borders the east end of the lot, from West Sixth street to West Seventh street. West Seventh street, which runs in an easterly and westerly direction, borders the south side of the lot from Burnett street to a .point on the west where West Sixth street runs into West Seventh street at an angle, in a westerly direction. The north side of the lot is bordered by West Sixth street, which runs in an easterly and westerly direction, from Burnett street to the said intersection of West Sixth street with West Seventh street.

Thus it will be seen that the heel of the flatiron-shaped lot is its east end and the toe of same its west end.

Appellants occupy the east end and appel-lee the west end of the triangular lot. Appellants have erected a substantial building on the said east end, in which automobile tires and tubes and accessories are sold, and in which a general tire service is conducted.

Appellants, believing that the west end of the lot, because of its advantageous location, would make a desirable location for an oil and gas. service station, entered into [1087]*1087negotiations with appellee to lease the same for such purpose. The result was that a written lease was entered into between the respective parties, covering a period of ten years, beginning April 1, 1928.

We find two paragraphs in the lease, the proper construction of which the appellee contends entitled it to restrain appellants from changing the present plan of the improvements by adding an addition thereto extending the walls of the building north for a distance of approximately fifteen feet. These paragraphs are numbers 5 and 6 in the lease, as follows:

“5. Lessee agrees in the construction and erection of signs on said property to cooperate with lessor, and W. H. Logan, so long as he remains a representative of lessor, to the end that lessee’s signs may not unreasonably interfere with the display advantages of the location of the property held by lessor adjoining on the east of the property herein leased, and lessor agrees to a like co-operation with lessee in reference to its signs.”
“6. Lessor agrees to pave the herein leased property and provide all necessary approaches thereto under the direction of lessee for the proper use of said property as a filling station. The improvements and equipment erected by lessee on said premises are to conform generally with the architectural plans of the improvements erected by lessor on the adjoining property to the east.”

Appellee, in seeking the relief desired, pleaded as follows:

“As a part of said lease said defendant, General Tire and Rubber Company, agreed with plaintiff that no signs should be erected on the portion of the property retained by said defendant which would unreasonably interfere with the display advantages of the location of the property for this plaintiff. Said defendant further agreed that the improvements and equipment erected by this plaintiff on said property should conform generally with the architectural plans of the improvements erected by said defendant on its adjoining property, retained by it to the east of the property leased by plaintiff.
“Plaintiff says that the property covered by the lease herein pled is the property on the east intersection of Sixth Street and Seventh Street in the Town of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, that said property together with the property retained and used by defendants herein constitutes a triangular piece of property, the portion of which said triangle held by plaintiff ■ under lease is the apex thereof.
“Plaintiff further says that acting under said lease and the provisions thereof “ defendant, General Tire & Rubber Company, and this plaintiff, erected a building extending over from the property of General Tire & Rubber Company not leased by it to plaintiff, onto the portion of the property leased to plaintiff; plaintiff paying for and owning the portion of the building erected on its leased premises.
“Plaintiff alleges that the building so erected with the portion of same on the lease premises held by plaintiff was constructed in compliance with the provisions of paragraph 6 of said lease, providing that the improvements and equipments erected on the lease premises, and the property held by General Tire & Rubber Company on the east of Defendant’s premises, should conform generally in architecture.
“Plaintiff says that since the execution of said lease on said premises plaintiff has been engaged in the business of selling gasoline, oils and greases on said lease premises and has expended large sums of money improving said property in excess of the sum of $3000.00; that it has developed on said premises a growing business and daily sells to the public from said premises large quantities of gasolines, oils and greases.
“Plaintiff says that each defendant, General 'Tire & Rubber Company, acting through its agent, Logan Tire Company, Inc., and the said Logan Tire Company, Inc., acting for itself, contrary to the provisions and stipulations of the lease under which plaintiff holds said premises, and in willful derogation thereof, has begun the erection of an addition to the portion of the building on the premises retained by said defendant, Logan Tire Company, Inc., to the east of the property held by plaintiff under lease, which said addition when and if completed will extend from the principal line of said building to the sidewalk line on Sixth Street on the north of said building.
“Plaintiff says the wall of this addition will completely cut off the view of all traffic passing from the east toward plaintiff’s premises on Sixth Street, and will most unreasonably interfere with the display advantages of the location of the property of plaintiff, said addition in itself constituting a sign of defendant’s place of business.
“Plaintiff further says that if said defendants are permitted to construct said addition it will throw said building entirely out [1088]*1088of architectural harmony and destroy the conformation of plaintiff’s portion of said building to the balance thereof in architectural design, and depreciate the value of plaintiff’s portion of said building and premises.
“Plaintiff further says that if said addition is completed it will prevent customers from coming to plaintiff’s place of business, as customers coming from the east on Sixth Street will not be able to see plaintiff’s place of business until they have passed by the wall of defendant’s structure, at which point it will be too late for said customers to turn into plaintiff’s place of business.

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Bluebook (online)
102 S.W.2d 1086, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/general-tire-rubber-co-v-texas-pacific-coal-oil-co-texapp-1937.