Shannon v. Tarrant County

99 S.W.2d 964
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 23, 1936
DocketNo. 13575
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 99 S.W.2d 964 (Shannon v. Tarrant County) 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
Shannon v. Tarrant County, 99 S.W.2d 964 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinions

SPEER, Justice.

This controversy grows out of an application to this court for a temporary restraining order by S. D. Shannon and wife, Marie Shannon, whom, for convenience, we shall refer to as appellants, against Tarrant County, Texas, Emmett Moore, as County Judge and Chairman of the Commissioners’ Court of Tarrant County, Texas, and Bill Merritt, Frank Estill, Earl Mitchell and Joe Thannisch, as County Commissioners of Tarrant County, Texas, and, for convenience, will be herein referred to as appellees.

The grounds upon which appellants sought the restraining order were alleged to be, substantially, as follows: That appellants were the owners of a tract of 9.85 acres of land in Tarrant County, Texas, described in the petition and unnecessary to be repeated here; that on August 24, 1936, they filed their petition in the 96th District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, for a temporary restraining order to prevent appellees entering their’ property and going forward with the construction of a road thereon which was alleged to be threatened by appellees under a purported condemnation proceeding.

A .cópy of appellants’ petition for injunc-tive relief before the 96th District Court of Tarrant County is attached to their petition before this court and from it we find the alleged grounds for injunction in the lower court were: That appellees had attempted to condemn the .property of appellants for the purpose of constructing a proposed road and that the acts of appel-lees in the purported condemnation proceedings were not in accordance with the law applicable to such cases and that they had not in any manner met the conditions provided by law to entitle them to take possession of appellants’ property as they were threatening to do; that there was no necessity for the construction of the proposed road; that it would be a useless expenditure of the money of taxpayers of Tarrant County, Texas; that there were no available funds belonging to said county with which such road could be constructed and that it was an abuse of discretion upon the part'of the Commissioners’ Court of Tarrant County to so build the same; other allegations were made along the lines last pointed out which we consider unnecessary to further mention here, but sufficient allegations were made to warrant the 96th District Court to restrain appellees, if it had jurisdiction in the matter.

The petition of appellants came on for hearing at a date set by the court, and the appellees appeared and replied with what they termed a plea to the jurisdiction of the 96th District Court, alleging the controversy grew out of the proposed building of the road across appellants’ land, mentioned in their petition, but that the Commissioners’ Court of Tarrant County had at that time pending in the County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, -condemnation proceedings therefor, and that, that court having assumed jurisdiction of said controversy, with full authority to do so, the 96th District Court of Tarrant County was without jurisdictional power to interfere with same. Allegations were made that the Commissioners’ Court of Tarrant County had made an effort to agree with appellants upon the value of the lands to be taken and as to damages, if any, to the residue of appellants’ land and, having failed to agree thereto, had entered its order on the 6th day of January, 1936; that it was necessary to acquire said land for the construction of the road and directing that con[966]*966demnation proceedings be entered for its acquisition; that on January 7, 1936, Tarrant County presented its petition to the judge of the County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, asking that said judge appoint special commissioners to make an award to appellants for the value of the land to be taken and for damages, if any. That condemnation proceedings were then instituted under the general statutes on the subject of eminent domain, as set forth in Revised Civil Statutes 1925, and amendments thereto (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. arts. 3264-3271), and also acting under section 12, c. 16, p. 41, Acts of the Regular Session of the 44th Legislature, 1935 (Vernon’s Ann.Civ. St. art. 6716 note).

Appellees further alleged in their plea to the jurisdiction of the 96th District Court that special commissioners were duly appointed, took oath of office, set a time for hearing, notified appellants of the time and place, heard their demands, set an award and made return of. their acts to the judge of said County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas; that the award was unacceptable to appellants; that the amount of the award was paid into the hands of the county clerk of Tarrant County; that the condemnation proceedings were pending in said County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, when appellants’ application for the restraining order was requested of the said 96th District Court, and that the said County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, had properly assumed jurisdiction of said controversy, and that said 96th District Court was without jurisdiction to grant the relief prayed for.

A hearing was had in the District Court and testimony offered, at the conclusion of which hearing the court held it was without jurisdiction and entered its order to that effect. The appellants excepted to the action of the court and gave notice of appeal.

On the 17th day of September, 1936, appellants presented their petition to this court for a restraining order against ap-pellees, pending said appeal, for the purpose of keeping the property in status quo, alleging the material parts of the proceedings theretofore had and renewing their claim that the condemnation proceedings in the County Court at Law No. 1, Tar-rant County, Texas, were void and that the said court had no jurisdiction in the premises. This court issued its restraining order as prayed for and the appellees, upon a day set by the court for hearing, have filed their motion to dissolve the restraining order issued by this court.

The parties, while orally submitting this caitse, agreed that this court should determine whether or not the 96th District Court of Tarrant County had jurisdiction of the subject matter involved in this case, and if the injunction prayed for should have been granted by that court. From a determination of this question we may know whether or not our restraining order should be dissolved.

The issue thus made for our determination is whether, under the pleadings and facts shown, the 96th District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, had jurisdiction to issue its restraining order and enjoin appellees from going upon and taking possession of the lands of appellants for the purposes and under the conditions which they claimed the right to act.

There can be no question but that Tarrant County has the right of eminent domain in matters such as are involved in the case before us. It is equally true that under Rev.Civ.Statutes arts. 1970 — 62 and 1970 — 45, County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, has jurisdiction in proper actions for condemnation in Tarrant County subject to the limitations provided by law common to the county courts throughout- the State.

It is contended by appellants that appel-lees would have to proceed under the provisions of title 116, chapter 2 (articles 6702-6716, Rev.Civ.Statutes, as amended [Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. arts. 6702-6716]), in order to legally condemn their property for road purposes and to confer jurisdiction upon County Court at Law No. 1, Tarrant County, Texas, for that purpose.

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Related

Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Texas Attorney General Reports, 1971
Wood v. Marfa Independent School Dist.
123 S.W.2d 429 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Tarrant County v. Shannon
104 S.W.2d 4 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)

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Bluebook (online)
99 S.W.2d 964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shannon-v-tarrant-county-texapp-1936.