in Re Richard W. Jackson and Lisa C. Jackson

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 15, 2017·No. 03-17-00849-CV·Published

Opinion

ACCEPTED

03-17-00849-CV

21317505

THIRD COURT OF APPEALS

AUSTIN, TEXAS

12/15/2017 10:56 AM

JEFFREY D. KYLE

CLERK

No. 03-17-00849-CV

FILED IN

3rd COURT OF APPEALS

In The Court of Appeals for the Third AUSTIN, TEXAS District of Texas at Austin 12/15/2017 10:56:34 AM JEFFREY D. KYLE

Clerk

In re Richard W. Jackson and Lisa C. Jackson, Relators.

From the County Court at Law No. 1, Travis County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. C-1-CV-17-001833

Emergency Motion to Stay (1) Trial And (2) Trial Court Order Dissolving Temporary Injunction

TO THE HONORABLE COURT:

Pursuant to Rule 52.10 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, Relators ask the Court to stay either or both (1) trial, and (2) an order of the trial court dissolving a temporary injunction where the real parties in interest obtained that order without any evidentiary showing.

This motion is filed contemporaneously with the filing of a petition for writ of mandamus and an interlocutory accelerated appeal. All concern the same subject matter – the trial court’s

dissolving of a temporary injunction absent any evidentiary showing of a change of circumstances. The real parties in interest circumvented their failure to appeal a temporary injunction entered against them in March 2017 by getting the temporary injunction dissolved many months later, after the trial court reversed itself on the law.

FACTS

The Jacksons sued to stop Ramsey and Cox from recording any amendments to subdivision restrictive covenants1 unless Ramsey and Cox (1) sent prior notice of any proposed amendment to all owners and (2) obtained a recommendation from the subdivision’s architectural committee. Following an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the Jacksons’ motion for a temporary injunction on March 3, 2017. 2 Ramsey and Cox did not appeal the order granting the temporary injunction.

Ramsey and Cox have counterclaimed for wrongful injunction based on the trial court’s grant of the relators’ motion for same. 3 On December 4, 2017, four days before the pretrial conference ahead of the December 11 trial, Ramsey and Cox filed a motion to

1 App. E (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 1 thereto). 2 App. A. 3 App. F.

dissolve the injunction. 4 The sole basis for their motion was that the trial court reversed its interpretation of the restrictive covenants in an interlocutory summary judgment order. At the hearing on the motion to dissolve the injunction on December 8, Ramsey and Cox offered no evidence in support of their motion. The trial court granted the motion. 5 The trial setting was then passed by the parties owing to the unlikelihood of the case being reached.

On December 11, 2017, Ramsey and Cox recorded in the Official Records of Travis County an amendment to the restrictive covenants. 6 They had not notified all owners of the voting on the amendment in early 2017 and never obtained any recommendation from the subdivision’s architectural committee.7 The deed restriction they relied upon in filing their amendment requires recordation of their amendment by March 15, 2017 (a ten-year anniversary date for recording amendments voted upon by a majority of owners). 8 Nevertheless, in addition to being filed on December 11, 2017, some of the signature pages show

4 App. B. 5 App. C. 6 Tab D. 7 Tab C (containing findings of fact); Tab E (transcript of injunction hearing). 8 Tab E (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 1, § 1.4).

purported owner ratification as late as November and December, 2017.9 On December 13, 2017, the Jacksons noticed an interlocutory accelerated appeal of the order dissolving the temporary injunction. No. 03-17-00846-CV.

ARGUMENT

Stay of the Order Dissolving Injunction Is Needed

Once freed from the temporary injunction, Ramsey and Cox commenced recordation of written instruments and can continue to do so. Not only did their December 11 instrument get recorded many months after the deed restrictions required its recordation, but it included signatures from November and December 2017 declaring themselves retroactively effective as of March 15, 2017. Ramsey and Cox are plainly willing to record suspect instruments.

The instrument recorded December 11, 2017, would, if effective, bar rentals for durations of less than 90 days. Recordation of the instrument threatens the relators with claims for breach of restrictive covenant for rental contracts already into under the protection of the temporary injunction, as well as for 9 Tab D (signature pages).

rentals relators could have entered into free of any express restriction had the injunction remained in force through trial.

The relators’ lawsuit seeks a declaration that all recorded amendments require a recommendation from the architectural committee at a minimum, just as the deed restrictions say. 10 There is no dispute in this case that Ramsey and Cox obtained no such recommendation for any amendment of any kind to date. While the relators’ property rights have been affected already with recordation of the amendment on December 11, it is vital that they not be harmed further with any additional recorded instruments while this Court considers the mandamus petition and interlocutory appeal of the order dissolving the injunction.

The relators may seek, at a later time, relief in this Court or the trial court should the real parties in interest seek to enforce the newly-recorded instrument, which was recorded improperly based on an order which constituted an abuse of discretion by the trial court.

10 Tab D (Plaintiffs’ Exhibit 1, § IX).

Stay of Trial Is Warranted Ramsey and Cox have asserted a claim in the underlying suit for wrongful injunction. While the pending mandamus and appeal proceedings cannot resolve the merits of that claim, trial should not proceed while the merits of the order dissolving the injunction are pending. That order, if still effective as of trial, could lend support for the wrongful injunction claim. Trial should not proceed until the mandamus and appeal are resolved.

Furthermore, Relators need to know whether to seek an shortened briefing schedule. Denial of this request to stay the trial would necessitate their seeking expedited briefing in this Court.

THE REQUESTED RELIEF IS OPPOSED Counsel for the relators has conferred with counsel for the real parties in interest, and this emergency request for a stay is opposed.

PRAYER FOR RELIEF

This Court should stay the trial court’s December 8, 2017 order dissolving the temporary injunction until the merits of the mandamus petition and interlocutory appeal challenging that

order are decided.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ J. Patrick Sutton

J. Patrick Sutton

Texas Bar No. 24058143

1706 W. 10th Street

Austin Texas 78703

Tel. (512) 417-5903

Fax. (512) 355-4155

jpatricksutton@

jpatricksuttonlaw.com

Attorney for Relator

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on December 15, a true and correct copy of this AMENDED petition was served by efiling on:

Michael L. Navarre Beatty Bangle Strama P.C. 400 West 15th Street, Suite 1450 Austin, Texas 78701 Phone: 512.879.5050 / Fax: 512.879.5040 mnavarre@bbsfirm.com /s/ J. Patrick Sutton

Attorney for Relator

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I certify that on December 15, 2017, undersigned counsel for Richard W. and Lisa C. Jackson conferred with counsel for Janice Cox and Helen Ramsey, concerning this motion, and the relief requested herein is opposed.

/s/ J. Patrick Sutton

Attorney for Relator

CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE This document complies with the typeface requirements of Tex. R. App. P. 9.4(e) because it has been prepared in Century Schoolbook 14-point for text and 12-point for footnotes. Spacing is expanded by .6 point for clarity. This document contains 745 words, excluding any parts exempted by Tex. R. App. P. 9.4(i)(1).

/s/ J. Patrick Sutton

Attorney for Relator

No. 03-17-00849-CV

In The Court of Appeals for the Third District of Texas at Austin

In re Richard W. Jackson and Lisa C. Jackson, Relators.

From the County Court at Law No. 1, Travis County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. C-1-CV-17-001833

APPENDIX TO PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS

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