Palafox v. Boyd

400 S.W.2d 946, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2825
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 12, 1966
Docket5763
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 400 S.W.2d 946 (Palafox v. Boyd) 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
Palafox v. Boyd, 400 S.W.2d 946, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2825 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

CLAYTON, Justice.

This appeal was perfected from a judgment of the District Court of El Paso County, Texas. Plaintiffs below (appellants here) had purchased lots in the Crown Point Addition to the City of El Paso, Texas. These lots all fronted on a cul-de-sac and were Lots 40, 41 and 43. Defendants below (appellees here) were the owners and successors in interest of the owners of Lot 42, lying between Lots 41 and 43, and also facing on the cul-de-sac. The City of El Paso, Texas was made a party defendant and the prayer was for a temporary restraining order preventing the other defendants from deeding to the City of El Paso, and the latter from accepting, a deed to Lot 42 to be used as a public thoroughfare, and for declaratory judgment as to the rights of the parties herein. While the cause was pending, the City of El Paso accepted the deed from the then owners of Lot 42.

Under date of April, 1955, what was termed a “replat of Crown Point Addition” was drawn and executed by the developers, which dedicated to public use the streets, drives and easements shown therein, and this plat was approved by the City Planning Commission of the City of El Paso, approved and adopted by the City, and filed of record. Subsequent thereto, in 1958 and 1959, and in apparent reliance on this plat showing the streets, drives and easements dedicated in said addition, the plaintiffs bought their lots and built residences thereon. This plat showed their lots, and Lot 42, as fronting on the cul-de-sac, or turn-around, or dead-end street, as it is variously called. It was not until 1958, when one of the plaintiffs was building his house, that the plaintifs learned that Lot 42 was going to be a street, but they “didn’t get excited about it at that time” and “just let it go’ until such time that something was going to be done about it”. Then, as stated, after this suit was filed and was pending, the City accepted from the then owners a deed to Lot 42 for street purposes. At a hearing before the court it was agreed that the hearing would be on the merits and for injunctive relief, and that final judgment on the whole case would be rendered. After hearing, the court denied all relief prayed for by plaintiffs and ruled that the defendant, City of El Paso, had the right to use the property in question, Lot 42, as a public street; that the dedication thereof for street purposes was lawful and did not infringe on any rights of the plaintiffs; and that damages suffered by plaintiffs, if any (such as loss of privacy, additional traffic and possible flooding), were damnum absque injuria.

As agreed by both parties in their briefs, “The basic question that is being determined in this appeal is whether an owner of property, that has been subdivided, platted and submitted to the City Planning Commission of the City of El Paso under the applicable statutes concerning the creation of subdivisions, Article 974a Vernon’s Ann.Tex. Civ.St., can, subsequent to the acceptance *948 of said plat and after filing for record in the County Clerk’s office, dedicate a building lot in said subdivision to the City to be used for a roadway”. We have determined that such question must be answered in the affirmative.

It should be mentioned here with regard to appellants’ points on appeal, that certain of them are based on a denied request for additional findings, the request for which came too late and cannot be considered here. Rule 363, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, provides that an appeal is perfected when notice of appeal is given and bond has been filed. In the instant case, notice of appeal was given on January 15, 1965 and cash bond was given on January 29, 1965. The request for additional findings was made on February 12, 1965, by which time jurisdiction over the matter had vested in this court and the trial court was without jurisdiction to make such findings. 3 Tex.Jur. 597, § 340; Ammex Warehouse Company v. Archer, 381 S.W. 2d 478, 482 (S.Ct., 1964). Also, the filing of such request for additional findings was not timely under Rule 298, T.R.C.P.; Century Indemnity Company v. First National Rank, 272 S.W.2d 150 (Tex.Civ.App., 1954, n. w. h.). For these reasons, appellants’ Points One through Four, complaining of the trial court’s refusal to make certain findings, are overruled. However, it may be taken as undisputed that Crown Point Addition was platted in accordance with statutory requirements, but that the later dedication of Lot 42 as a public street did not meet the requirements of § 5 of Art. 974a V.A.T.S., and that such requirements did not have to be met, on the theory that such dedication did not constitute a vacation of the original plat or replat of said addition. This section (§5) requires that when lots have been sold in an addition, a vacation of said plat or replat, or any part thereof, may only be accomplished upon the application of all the owners of lots in said plat or replat with the approval of the City Planning Commission or the governing body of the City. This brings us back to the basic question stated above — whether an owner of property, that has been subdivided, platted and submitted to the City Planning Commission of the City of El Paso under the applicable statutes concerning the creation of subdivisions, Article 974a, V.A.T.S., can, subsequent to the acceptance of said plat and after filing for record in the County Clerk’s office, dedicate a building lot in said subdivision to the City to be used for a roadway.

This question must be answered by use of analogy, since there seems to be no Texas authority directly on the point. At the outset, the persuasiveness of appellees’ argument as contained in their brief against a negative answer to the stated question is at once apparent:

“ * * * The Appellants’ theory is that because of this statute a new street —additional to the streets shown on the filed plat — cannot be opened without consent of all the lot owners. This idea is quite novel and we have found no case exactly in point.
“One is struck with the far-reaching, even disastrous, consequences of such a theory. The State and the cities have long been engaged in extensive road and street building programs. A new highway in a city will usually pass through many platted subdivisions. Many of these subdivisions are large, including areas far from the new street. If opening a new street is a vacation of the plats through which it extends, the consent of hundreds, often thousands, of property owners would have to be obtained. In actual practice any major street program would be a sheer impossibility.”

Appellees, later in their brief, point out that “platting cannot abrogate the power of the State (or a political subdivision to which the State delegates the power) to acquire land for public use. This is obvious from considerations of public policy and from the decisions on the analogous situations aris *949 ing under deed restrictions.” Appellees then cite the cases of City of Houston v. Wynne, 279 S.W. 916 (Tex.Civ.App., 1926), and City of River Oaks v. Moore, 272 S.W.2d 389 (Tex.Civ.App., 1954; ref., n. r. e.). When the Wynne case (supra) was before the Texas Supreme Court, 115 Tex. 255, 281 S.W. 544, that court said, per curiam:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Heath v. Duncan
152 S.W.3d 147 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2005)
Opinion No.
Texas Attorney General Reports, 2004
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 2004
Charton Corp. v. Brockette
534 S.W.2d 401 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1976)
City of Houston v. McCarthy
464 S.W.2d 381 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
400 S.W.2d 946, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 2825, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palafox-v-boyd-texapp-1966.