Michele R. Pauli and Alann Torres v. Michael D. Hayes and Teresa C. Hayes

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 18, 2018·No. 04-17-00026-CV·Published

Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals

San Antonio, Texas

MEMORANDUM OPINION

No. 04-17-00026-CV

Michele R. PAULI and Alann Torres, Appellants

v.

Michael D. HAYES and Teresa C. Hayes, Appellees

From the 224th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas Trial Court No. 2012-CI-12272 Honorable Solomon Casseb, III, Judge Presiding

Opinion by: Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice

Sitting: Patricia O. Alvarez, Justice Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice Irene Rios, Justice

Delivered and Filed: July 18, 2018

AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED AND RENDERED IN PART, REVERSED AND REMANDED IN PART

This is a dispute between neighbors about a sports court appellants built in their back yard.

After more than five years of litigation, a jury rendered a verdict partially favorable to Michael and Teresa Hayes. Based on the verdict, the trial court signed a judgment awarding the Hayeses damages for loss of market value of their property, loss of use and enjoyment of their property, and trespass. The trial court also granted injunctive relief and denied Michele Pauli’s and Alann Torres’s request for attorney’s fees for prevailing on a Water Code claim. Pauli and Torres appeal, raising numerous challenges to each disposition in the judgment. For the reasons discussed below,

we affirm the damage awards on the trespass and negligence claims and affirm the denial of an award of attorney’s fees. We reverse and render the award of damages for loss of market value because the evidence is legally insufficient to support the award. We reverse and render the parts of the injunctive relief that are not supported by the pleadings and evidence or that are overly broad. We reverse the part of the injunctive relief that requires shielding of the lights and installation of black-out banners because it is insufficiently specific, and we remand the case to the trial court to render injunctive relief that is definite, clear, and precise.

BACKGROUND

Appellant Michele Pauli bought a home in 2011. The back property line is adjacent to the back property line of Teresa and Michael Hayes (“the Hayeses”). Pauli and her husband, Alann Torres, (“the Torreses”) built additions to the house and then built a 75 foot by 126 foot sports court in their back yard. One side of the court runs parallel to the Hayeses’ back property line, and the edge of the court is approximately two-to-three feet from the property line. Because the Torreses’ and Hayeses’ back yards slope from one side to the other, the slab of the court along the Hayes property line is increasingly high against the grade, and a part of the court along several feet of the back property line is raised about six feet above the natural grade. The Torreses installed eight light poles on the court that are each twenty feet tall. Each pole has two light fixtures and each fixture has a one thousand watt lamp. In addition, the Torreses began installing a sports court fence to keep tennis balls from going onto the Hayes property. However, the fence was removed after the Hayeses complained it violated the City Code. The Torreses proposed various types of screens, fencing, netting, or backstops to contain tennis balls and to help provide privacy, but the Hayeses refused to agree to any of the proposals and objected to the Torreses’ requests for variances. Consequently, the Torreses placed large planters of bamboo between the edge of the sports court and the property line, in hopes that as the bamboo grew taller, some of the Hayeses

concerns would be resolved. At the time of trial, the bamboo was between eight and twelve feet tall. The Hayeses also complain that the sports court, retaining wall, and bamboo planters have altered drainage patterns and diverted water onto their property.

The Hayeses filed their original petition and application for a temporary injunction in July 2012. They alleged negligence per se and private nuisance, sought a declaratory judgment that the sports court was in violation of the City’s Unified Development Code, and sought injunctive relief to require a large part of the sports court and lighting be removed. The trial court granted a temporary injunction, precluding use of the lights and the court. As a result, the Torreses did not use the sports court or turn on the lights, except for testing purposes, from August 2012 until April 2015, when the temporary injunction was declared void.

In November 2015, the trial court dismissed all the Hayeses’ claims based on alleged violations of the City’s Uniform Development Code or the International Building Code, including their claims for declaratory judgment and negligence per se, and their allegations of public and private nuisance based upon alleged code violations. The Hayeses’ declaratory judgment action for violation of the Water Code was not dismissed and the court allowed the Hayeses to replead a private nuisance based on other facts. In connection with these rulings, the trial court awarded the Torreses $19,998.50 in attorney’s fees for prevailing on the claims under the Declaratory Judgment Act. Then, in September 2016, the trial court granted the Torreses’ motion for summary judgment on the Hayeses’ causes of action for tortious interference with the use and enjoyment of property and tortious interference with prospective business relationship.

The case went to trial in October 2016 on the Hayeses’ Fifth Amended Petition. The Hayeses complained about the design and construction of the sports court, focusing on the court’s proximity to the property line and the slab’s height at one end, the lighting design and installation, and the drainage system design that allegedly diverted water to the Hayeses’ property. They

submitted the case to the jury on five theories: nuisance, trespass, invasion of privacy, negligence, and violation of the Texas Water Code. The Hayeses asked the jury to award them over three million dollars for loss of market value, cost of remediation, loss of use and enjoyment of their property, and mental anguish, and further sought punitive damages and attorney’s fees. The jury found that the Torreses negligently caused a nuisance and were strictly liable for causing a nuisance, and that the nuisance resulted in a $25,000 loss in the market value of the Hayeses’ property. The jury also found that the Torreses committed trespass, but found the Hayeses did not suffer any actual damages as a result of the trespass and awarded $5,000 as nominal damages. The jury found both the Hayeses and the Torreses were negligent, the Torreses were 77% responsible, and the negligence caused $2,500 in past loss of use and enjoyment of the property. The jury found against the Hayeses on their claims for intentional nuisance, invasion of privacy, violation of the Texas Water Code, and gross negligence. Finally, the jury found the Torreses’ attorney’s fees incurred in connection with the Water Code claim are $161,480.44.

After hearing post-judgment motions, the trial court disregarded the jury’s finding of attorney’s fees incurred by the Torreses. The trial court rendered a final judgment awarding the Hayeses $25,000 for loss of market value of their property caused by the nuisance, $5,000 in nominal damages for trespass, and $1,925 (77% of $ 2,500) on the negligence claim. It denied relief to the Hayeses on their Water Code claim and to the Torreses on their claim for fees. The court awarded the Hayeses prejudgment interest and credited the judgment for the previous award of attorney’s fees to the Torreses. In addition, the trial court granted the Hayeses injunctive relief.

The Torreses appeal, complaining of the nuisance and negligence liability findings, each of the damage awards, the failure to award them their attorney’s fees under the Water Code, and raising a number of complaints about the injunctive relief.

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