Joseph v. City of Austin

101 S.W.2d 381
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1936
DocketNo. 8311
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 101 S.W.2d 381 (Joseph v. City of Austin) 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
Joseph v. City of Austin, 101 S.W.2d 381 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

BLAIR, Justice,

Appellant Edward Joseph sued appellees, the City of Austin and its city manager, Adam Johnson, for damages alleged to have been caused by the summary removal of a stucco wall constructed by appellant on a portion of Split Rock avenue, a public street of said city. At the conclusion of the evidence the trial court instructed a verdict and accordingly rendered judgment for appel-lees; hence this appeal.

Appellant owned lot 3, block 1, in Edge-mont addition to the City of Austin, abutting on Split Rock avenue, a public street of said city, which had been dedicated by map and plat to public use as a street 60 feet wide. The city had improved the middle 30 feet for vehicular use by paving and constructing a curb on each side, leaving IS feet on each side between the curb and property lines of abutting owners for sidewalks and other uses permitted by the city. At the time in question no sidewalks had been constructed, and the 15 feet had been used by some of the abutting property owners down to the curb inclosing the vehicular portion of the street for lawns, trees, hedges, shrubbery, etc., but none of them had constructed anything of a permanent nature, except retaining walls, which would not have interfered with the construction of sidewalks.

The map and plat of Edgemont addition dedicating Split Rock avenue as a public street was executed March 28, 1927, filed for record on the same day, and recorded April 1, 1927, and the deed conveying lot 3 ip said addition to Joseph referred to and made the map and plat a part of the description of the property conveyed; "and the metes and bounds description contained in Joseph’s deed apprised him of the fact that his property line stopped 15 feet short of the curb demarcating the vehicular portion of Split Rock avenue.

On June 2, 1930, -appellant applied for a permit to erect a dwelling house on his lot, stating in his application that there would be no projection beyond his property line. On August 20, 1930, the building inspector of the City of Austin notified Joseph in writing that a stucco wall then under construction as a part of the building was on a portion of Split Rock avenue, a public street, and would have to be removed. At the time of the notice to Joseph the wall was partially (about two-thirds) constructed and extended or projected 5 or more feet on the portion of the street not used for vehicular travel and was some 7 or 8 feet high. The wall was constructed on 6x6 posts embedded in cement, with heavy timbers nailed to the posts and steel laths nailed to the timbers, and three coats of stucco placed on the laths. The wall thus constructed was substantial and was permanent in its nature.

On August 21, 1930, appellant Joseph wrote the city council of Austin, stating that his wall extended about five feet over his property line, but requesting permission to let it remain, claiming that not to do so would be a discrimination as between himself and other property owners on the same street.

On September 5, 1930, appellee Johnson wrote Joseph, as follows:

“The Council has instructed me to advise you that it will be necessary for you to remove at once the wall you have built on said property on Lot 3, Block 1, Edge-mont Addition.
“Please give this your prompt attention, and oblige.
“Very truly yours,
“[Signed] Adam Johnson,
“City Manager.”

Joseph received this letter and made some attempt to settle the matter with the city council, city manager, and city attorney; but on September 11, 1930, the city council passed the following resolution:

“Whereas, Edward W. Joseph is now constructing in front of his premises situated on Split Rock Avenue in Edgemont, City of Austin, a concrete wall, which is located within the área of the street dedicated for public use, and presents an obstruction within said street; therefore
“Be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Austin:
“That the City Manager be and he is hereby authorized and directed to cause said concrete wall, an obstruction, to be removed from said street.”

The city manager immediately notified Joseph by registered letter of this resolution of the city council, ánd requested that the wall be removed. Joseph received this letter about 5 o’clock Friday, September 12, 1930, and immediately took it to his attorneys. Joseph then left the city for the week-end, without conferring with the city council. His proffered testimony, that before leaving he had instructed his contractor to remove the wall on the following Monday, was excluded, because not brought to [384]*384the knowledge or attention of appellees, and as being self-serving. On the following day, Saturday, September 13, 1930, the city manager, not having heard from Joseph, instructed Bowles, a street foreman of the City of Austin, to take his men and remove the wall, “and to be as careful as possible in taking it down, not to tear it up any more than we could help.” Bowles testified that he removed the wall as carefully and with as little damage as possible, and placed the wall and debris over on appellant’s lot against his house.

The .above uncontroverted evidence showed the stucco wall constructed by Joseph to be permanent in nature, a substantial obstruction of the public street, and an encroachment thereon, and to be a nuisance per se, which the City of Austin had the power to summarily remove from the street. This power existed under common law, and since the City of Austin was incorporated under the Home-Rule Amendment (Const, art. 11, § 5), it also had the power as a home-rule city to regulate and control the use of its streets, and it had the power in a proper case to summarily remove obstructions and abate encroachments on its streets, and to define and abate nuisances per se summarily. Its city charter also gave the city council exclusive control and regulation of its “streets, alleys, sidewalks, etc.,” and made it the imperative duty of the city council to “abate and remove in a summary manner encroachments” and obstructions thereon.

In Compton v. Waco Bridge Co., 62 Tex. 715, the city council of Waco had by ordinance directed its city .marshal to remove all obstructions in certain streets leading to fords on the river, and in announcing the rule that the city had the right to summarily remove obstructions which prevented free access to the streets, the court said: “That an obstruction placed in a street or other highway, without authority of law, such as a building or a fence across the same, is a nuisance, and may be removed by the local authority, would seem to admit of no doubt. But in view of the specific authority conferred upon the city authorities of Waco, the right to exercise such power seems to be indisputable. Every person by a resort to the courts of the country, has a complete remedy-to prevent an arbitrary or wanton exercise of that authority. To force the municipal authorities to a suit in the courts to secure the removal of obstructions from the streets would, to a considerable extent, defeat the objects and purposes contemplated in the creation of municipal governments.” '

In Dozier v. City of Austin (Tex.Civ.App.) 253 S.W.

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Bluebook (online)
101 S.W.2d 381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joseph-v-city-of-austin-texapp-1936.