Jimenez v. Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 2

68 F.R.D. 668, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15899
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedOctober 2, 1975
DocketCiv. A. No. 72-B-171
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 68 F.R.D. 668 (Jimenez v. Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jimenez v. Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 2, 68 F.R.D. 668, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15899 (S.D. Tex. 1975).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Before GEE, Circuit Judge and GARZA and COX, District Judges.

GEE, Circuit Judge:

This suit is brought by plaintiff Guadalupe Jimenez and thirteen other named plaintiffs, former residents of defendant Hidalgo County Water Improvement District No. 2 or defendant Hidalgo and Cameron Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 9, against certain directors of the two defendant water districts, in their official capacities only. Plaintiffs sue for a class comprising all those persons whose lands have been excluded from the defendant water districts without actual personal notice to the owners thereof, or persons in possession of such lands and who do not want their lands excluded from the defendant water districts.

Plaintiffs seek an injunction setting aside the January 1973 water district elections and ordering defendants to hold new elections in each of defendant water districts, since by reason of the exclusion of their lands from such districts plaintiffs were unable to vote in the January water district elections and will be unable to vote in future water district elections. In addition, they would have this court enjoin defendants from excluding “urban property” as defined in Article 8280-3.2, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., from the corporate boundaries of the defendant water districts and would have this court declare both that Article 8280-3.2 is unconstitutional on its face and as applied to them and the class they represent and that the action of defendants in excluding “urban property” pursuant to such statute is null and void and of no effect at law.

Jurisdiction is predicated upon 28 U. S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, 2201 and 2202; upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and upon the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. This three-judge court was convened by order of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Jimenez v. Hid-algo County Water Improvement District No. 2, 496 F.2d 113 (5th Cir. 1974).

The facts of this case are stipulated and have been found by this court to be as stipulated.

Defendant water districts are political subdivisions of the State of Texas, similar to municipalities and other special-purpose districts governed by state statutes. The two districts were organized pursuant to Article 16, § 59 of the Texas Constitution and are governed by Chapter 51 of the Texas Water Code. The [671]*671state legislature has delegated to such water control and improvement districts the authority to administer the state’s water resources by means of their respective water rights. Water districts have been granted broad powers to effectuate their purposes, e. g., the power of eminent domain, the power to acquire property, the power to tax for certain purposes, the power to borrow money and issue bonds, the power to make contracts and engage in large-scale construction projects, and the power to hire numerous employees to implement the goals of the district and enforce district regulations. See generally Chapter 51, Texas Water Code. In essence, water districts have been endowed by the legislature with all powers necessary to carry out their purposes. Each district operates through a board of directors, each of whom must own land within the district.

Plaintiffs herein complain of the exclusion of their lands from the defendant districts. A preliminary examination must therefore be made of the procedure used in excluding such lands. Article 8280-3.2, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann., the statute challenged in this lawsuit, reads, in pertinent part, as follows:

Art. 8280-3.2 Water Control improvement districts; exclusion of urban property
Section 1. As used in this Act:
(a) “Urban property” means land which has been subdivided into town lots, or town lots and blocks, or small parcels of the same general nature of town lots, or town blocks and lots, designed, intended or suitable for residential or other non-agricultural purposes, as distinquished from farm acreage, including streets, alleys, parkways, parks and railroad property and right-of-ways in such subdivision; whether such subdivision be within or near any established city, town or village, or not; and whether or not a plat or map of such subdivision has been duly filed for record and recorded in the office of the county clerk of the county in which such subdivision or any part thereof is situated. Urban property shall not be deemed to include land, which is or has been within one year previous to the date of the hearing hereinafter provided, used for farming or agricultural purposes.
(b) “District” means any water control and improvement district now existing or hereafter created for the principle purpose of, or principally engaged in, furnishing water for the irrigation of agricultural lands and having no outstanding bonded indebtedness owing by such water control and improvement district at the time of the hearing hereinafter provided, or having indebtedness only in connection with a loan from an agency of the United States, provided writ-’ ten consent from an authorized representative of the agency of the United States involved to the proposed exclusion hereunder is on file with the district prior to the time of the hearing hereinafter provided.
Sec. 2. Urban property located within the boundaries of a district may be excluded from such district by the Board of Directors after a hearing by the Board of Directors called and held as hereinafter set forth.

Provision is then made for hearing and notice which will be hereinafter discussed.

Preamble

The alteration of the boundaries of political subdivisions by the state is a political function entirely within the power of the state legislature to regulate. This principle was enunciated by the Supreme Court in 1907, in the case of Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161, 28 S.Ct. 40, 52 L.Ed. 151. The Court stated, at pages 178 and 179, 28 S.Ct. at page 46:

Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the state, created as convenient agencies for exercising [672]*672such of the governmental powers of the state as may be entrusted to them. For the purpose of executing these powers properly and efficiently they usually are given the power to acquire, hold, and manage personal and real property. The number, nature, and duration of the powers conferred upon these corporations and the territory over which they shall be exercised rests in the absolute discretion of the state. . . . The state, therefore, at its pleasure, may modify or withdraw all such powers, may take without compensation such property, hold it itself, or vest it in other agencies, expand or contract the territorial area, unite the whole or a part of it with another municipality, repeal the charter and destroy the corporation.

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Bluebook (online)
68 F.R.D. 668, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15899, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jimenez-v-hidalgo-county-water-improvement-district-no-2-txsd-1975.