Mattox v. County Commissioners' Court

389 S.W.3d 464, 2012 WL 4355544, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8057
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 25, 2012
DocketNo. 14-11-00383-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 389 S.W.3d 464 (Mattox v. County Commissioners' Court) 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
Mattox v. County Commissioners' Court, 389 S.W.3d 464, 2012 WL 4355544, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8057 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

KEM THOMPSON FROST, Justice.

After a county commissioners court denied an application filed by two landowners under section 232.008 of the Texas Local Government Code, the landowners sought a writ of mandamus from a district court commanding the county commissioners court to grant that application. The landowners filed a summary-judgment motion asserting that they were entitled to the mandamus relief as a matter of law. The county commissioners court and other defendants filed a summary-judgment motion seeking, among other things, a remand to the county commissioners court. The trial court denied the landowners’ summary-judgment motion and granted summary judgment ordering that the case be remanded to the county commissioners court. The landowners appeal the trial court’s partial grant of the defendants’ motion and denial of the landowners’ motion.

[466]*466We conclude that the trial court did not err in denying the landowners’ motion but that the trial court erred in ordering a remand to the county commissioners court. Accordingly, we reverse in part and remand to the trial court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.

I. Factual and Procedubal Background

In May 2005, appellants/plaintiffs Gregory R. Mattox and Barbara Wilkerson (collectively the “Mattox Parties”) purchased lots 35 and 36 in the Hill Forest Manor Subdivision (hereinafter, the “Subdivision”). These lots are in the southwest corner of the Subdivision, and lot 36 borders undivided acreage to the west that is currently owned by Clifford and Eleanor Jackson (collectively, the “Jacksons”). A dedicated road, known as Hill Forest Lane, runs along the southern border of the Subdivision. According to the plat for the Subdivision, the western end of Hill Forest Lane stops at the Jacksons’ property and forms the southern border of lots 35 and 36. There is no road on the Jack-sons’ property leading up to this corner of their land that the plat reflects borders on Hill Forest Lane.

The Mattox Parties assert that when they purchased their land, most of what the plat shows as the part of Hill Forest Lane south of their property was not being maintained as a road. The Mattox Parties claim that they believed that this area was part of the land that they had purchased and was not part of Hill Forest Lane. After the Mattox Parties cleaned out the weeds, brush, and debris in this area, they learned that some residents in the Subdivision contended that this land was part of Hill Forest Lane, which is a county road.

According to the Mattox Parties’ pleading in the district court below, the Mattox Parties first filed an application with ap-pellee/defendant Grimes County Commissioners’ Court (“Commissioners Court”) asking the court to abandon or vacate that part of Hill Forest Lane, but the court denied the application in July 2006. See Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 251.051 (West 2012) (providing that the commissioners court of a county has the authority to close, abandon, or vacate a public road).

In April 2007, the Mattox Parties filed an “APPLICATION TO CANCEL DEDICATION” with the Commissioners Court. In this application, the Mattox Parties asked the court to “cancel the dedication of that portion of HILL FOREST LANE shown on the plat of HILL FOREST MANOR SUBDIVISION ... beginning at the west side of our property and extending 134 feet toward the east and ending at the place where GRIMES COUNTY currently begins maintaining HILL FOREST LANE, which is the west terminating end of HILL FOREST LANE.” The Mattox Parties based this second application on section 232.008 of the Texas Local Government Code.1 See Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 232.008 (West 2005). On June 11, 2007, the Commissioners Court considered the Mattox Parties’ second application. After hearing argument from counsel for the Mattox Parties and counsel for the Jack-sons and other proceedings, the Commissioners Court denied the application by a 3-2 vote.

The Mattox Parties then filed a petition for writ of mandamus in district court against the Commissioners Court, Grimes County Judge Betty Shiflett, John Ber-tling, Grimes County Commissioner for Precinct 1, and Pam Finke, Grimes County [467]*467Commissioner for Precinct 4 (collectively, the “Court Parties”). The Mattox Parties asserted that the Commissioners Court abused its discretion by denying rather than granting the Mattox Parties’ section 282.008 application. On this basis, the Mattox Parties sought a writ of mandamus compelling the Commissioners Court to grant the Mattox Parties’ section 232.008 application (“Application”).

The Mattox Parties filed a motion for summary judgment asserting they were entitled to the relief they sought as a matter of law. The Court Parties filed a motion for summary judgment asserting that, as a matter of law, the Commissioners Court had discretion to deny the application under subsection (h) of section 282.008 (“Subsection (h)”). The district court denied the former motion and granted the latter motion. The Mattox Parties appealed both rulings to this court.

On appeal, this court noted that, under the law existing at that time, Subsection (h) applied only to land subdivided or plats filed on or after September 1, 1999. See Mattox v. Grimes County Commissioners Court, 305 S.W.3d 375, 383 n. 7 (Tex.App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, pet. denied). See also Act of May 5, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 129, § 10, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws 574, 578. (providing that Subsection (h) applied only to land subdivided or plats filed on or after September 1, 1999). In this first appeal, no party argued that section 232.008 did not provide for the relief sought in the Application, and no party argued that Subsection (h) did not apply because the land for the Subdivision was subdivided and the plat was filed before September 1, 1999. This court did not address these issues. See id. at 383-85 & n. 7. In the first appeal, this court held that, under the summary-judgment ground asserted in the Court Parties’ motion, these parties had the burden of proving as a matter of law that the factual predicate stated in Subsection (h) applied so that, as a matter of law, granting the Application was discretionary. See id. at 381-82. See also Act of May 5, 1999, 76th Leg., R.S., ch. 129, § 7, 1999 Tex. Gen. Laws 574, 577 (providing that “[t]he commissioners court may deny a cancellation under this section if the commissioners court determines the cancellation will prevent the proposed interconnection of infrastructure to pending or existing development”) (formerly codified at Tex. Log. Gov’t Code Ann. § 232.008(h)). Concluding that the summary-judgment evidence did not prove this factual predicate as a matter of law, this court held that the trial court erred in granting the Court Parties’ summary-judgment motion. See id. at 383-85. Accordingly, this court reversed the trial court’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings consistent with the court’s opinion. See id. at 387.

On remand, the Mattox Parties and the Court Parties both filed second motions for summary judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
389 S.W.3d 464, 2012 WL 4355544, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 8057, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mattox-v-county-commissioners-court-texapp-2012.