National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. v. Harris County-Houston Sports Authority

448 S.W.3d 472, 2014 WL 1464654, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4079
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 15, 2014
DocketNo. 01-13-00401-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 448 S.W.3d 472 (National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. v. Harris County-Houston Sports Authority) 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
National Public Finance Guarantee Corp. v. Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, 448 S.W.3d 472, 2014 WL 1464654, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4079 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

REBECA HUDDLE, Justice.

National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation and MBIA Insurance Corporation (collectively, “National”) challenge the trial court’s grant, based on sovereign immunity, of two pleas to the jurisdiction filed by the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority (the “Sports Authority”) and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation (the “Convention Corporation”). We reverse the trial court’s grant of the Sports Authority’s plea, and affirm the trial court’s grant of the Convention Corporation’s plea.

[475]*475Background

In 1997, Harris County and the City of Houston created the Sports Authority pursuant to Chapter 385 of the Local Government Code. See Tex. Loo. Gov’t Code Ann. § 335.021 (West 2005) (a municipality may create a venue district under Chapter 335 to plan, acquire, establish, develop, construct, or renovate one or more venue projects in the district); Tex. Loc. Gov’t Code Ann. § 335.023 (West 2005) (a district is a political subdivision of the creating political subdivision and of the state). Since its creation, the Sports Authority has issued several series of bonds pursuant to a written Indenture of Trust (collectively with all supplements and amendments, “Indenture”) to finance the construction of sports venues in Harris County. The Indenture is an agreement between JPMor-gan Chase Bank (later Chase Manhattan Bank) and the Sports Authority that governs the bonds. The Indenture provides that so long as any bonds remain outstanding, the Sports Authority shall, to the extent permitted by law, impose and collect the revenues necessary to pay off the bonds and not impair its ability to collect the required revenues. The Indenture also provides for the creation of various accounts and a reserve account to hold funds securing the bonds, and specifies the priority of payments from these accounts.

The parties’ dispute primarily concerns the Series 2001 bonds that were used to fund the construction of Reliant Stadium. The Convention Corporation is a local government entity created to serve as the landlord of Reliant Stadium. Contemporaneously with the issuance of the bonds, several agreements were executed:

• The Funding Agreement: The Sports Authority, the Convention Corporation, Houston NFL Holdings, LP (“the Texans”), and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Inc. (“the Rodeo”) executed a Funding Agreement to describe the sources and uses of monies committed to the development of Reliant Stadium, including providing for the issuance of bonds and the raising of revenues to fund the bonds. The Funding Agreement provided that the “provisions for payment or application thereof in many instances are addressed more specifically in other Principal Project Documents or the Indentures.”1 It also provided that to the extent the terms of the Funding Agreement conflicted with the Indenture or the Lease Agreements (described below), the Indenture and ' the Lease Agreements, as appropriate, “shall control.”
• The Texans Lease: The Convention Corporation and the Texans executed a lease agreement, which governs the Texans’ rental and use of Reliant Stadium.
• The Rodeo Lease: The Convention Corporation and the Rodeo executed a lease agreement, which governs the Rodeo’s rental and use of Reliant Stadium.

Each of these agreements makes the bond insurer a third party beneficiary to the agreement. The bond obligations are paid by (1) hotel occupancy and motor-vehicle rental taxes and (2) taxes on admissions and parking at Reliant Stadium. The [476]*476Funding Agreement provides that admissions taxes shall not exceed $2 per ticket and that parking taxes shall be $1 per vehicle.

National insures the bonds.2 The Sports Authority also entered into three Reimbursement and Indemnity Agreements with MBIA (now National), one on May 1, 2001, one on December 15, 2001, and one on June 1, 2004, which provided that National would guarantee regularly scheduled principal and interest payments on the bonds. In exchange, the Sports Authority agreed to indemnify National against any failure by it to perform or comply with the covenants or conditions of the Reimbursement Agreements or the “Related Documents” (which included the bonds, the Indenture, and “any other agreement or instrument relating hereto or thereto ....”). The Reimbursement Agreements incorporated all representations, warranties, and covenants in the Related Documents “with the same effect as if each and every such representation, warranty, and covenant and defined term were set forth herein in its entirety.”

On several occasions since the issuance of the bonds, the revenues raised by the Sports Authority were insufficient to make the minimum principal and interest payments due on the bonds. To cover these shortfalls, the Sports Authority made claims on the financial guaranty insurance policies issued by National as provided for in the Reimbursement Agreements. National contended that these claims imper-missibly reduced the reserve fund provided for in the Indenture that is intended to secure the bond obligations. It also argued that, because the Sports Authority was authorized by statute to impose an admission tax up to 10% of ticket price and parking tax up to $3 per vehicle, the Sports Authority was required by the Indenture to raise admission and parking taxes at Reliant Stadium to legislative máximums in order to cover the shortfalls. See Tex. Loa Gov’t Code Ann. § 334.152 (West 2005) (admission tax imposed by venue may not exceed 10% of ticket price); § 334.202 (West Supp.2005) (amount of parking tax may not exceed $3 per vehicle). The Sports Authority refused to raise these taxes on the grounds that the Funding Agreement capped these taxes at $2 per ticket and $1 per car, that any additional revenue raised by these measures was required to be rebated to the Texans and the Rodeo under the terms of the Leases and the Funding Agreement and would therefore never be available to service bond obligations, and that it was not authorized to raise these taxes without voter approval.

In January 2013, National sued the Sports Authority, claiming that it had breached the Indenture by refusing to impose admissions and parking taxes at the legislative maximum. National also asserted other breaches by the Sports Authority and a claim for reimbursement. In addition, National requested a declaratory judgment against the Sports Authority, the Convention Corporation, the Texans, and the Rodeo, that the Indenture requires the Sports Authority to impose admissions taxes and parking taxes up to their legislative maximum, and that the provisions of the Leases and the Funding Agreement should be modified and interpreted to permit the incremental revenue generated by these increases to be paid to National.

The Authority and the Convention Corporation filed pleas to the jurisdiction, asserting that they were governmental enti[477]*477ties and, accordingly, immune from suit. In response, National asserted that both the Sports Authority and the Convention Corporation had waived their immunity to suit by entering into the agreements related to the bond issuance. The Funding Agreement and the Leases contain express waivers of immunity and agreements not to assert immunity in any action or proceeding related to these agreements.

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Bluebook (online)
448 S.W.3d 472, 2014 WL 1464654, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4079, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-public-finance-guarantee-corp-v-harris-county-houston-sports-texapp-2014.