Southwest Industries Investment Co. v. Greene Home Owners Ass'n

608 S.W.2d 758, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4047
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 28, 1980
DocketNo. 20454
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 608 S.W.2d 758 (Southwest Industries Investment Co. v. Greene Home Owners Ass'n) 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
Southwest Industries Investment Co. v. Greene Home Owners Ass'n, 608 S.W.2d 758, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4047 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

CARVER, Justice.

The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of The Greene Home Owners Association, Inc., and against Southwest Industries Investment Company for (1) unpaid monthly lot-owner assessments, together with accrued interest and attorney’s fees and (2) the restoration costs for damages to the common property of all lot-owners occasioned by Southwest’s construction activity relative to its own lots. The summary judgment also denied Southwest’s counterclaim for theft and vandalism said to have been occasioned by the Association’s failure to accomplish its purpose of promoting the safety of lot-owners, and for loss of sales by Southwest, claimed to have been occasioned by the Association’s failure to properly maintain the common property. We reverse and remand the summary judgment as to the Association’s cause of action for unpaid monthly installments of annual lot-owner assessments, together with interest and attorney’s fees, because the summary judgment record fails to establish that Southwest was the “record-owner of the fee simple title” to the lots in question for the months in question so as to be liable for the assessments. We affirm the summary judgment as to the Association’s cause of action for the restoration costs to common property occasioned by Southwest’s construction activity because Southwest had agreed in writing to make the restoration and did not contest in the summary judgment proceedings that it had failed to do so or that the reasonable and necessary cost of restoration was $733.00 as of May 24, 1979. We affirm the summary judgment denying Southwest’s counterclaim because the “Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions” relied upon by Southwest does not, as a matter of law, disclose any duty undertaken by the Association to prevent theft or vandalism upon Southwest’s lots or to assure sales of Southwest’s improved lots.

In January 1972, Glen Oaks, Inc. executed and filed a “Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions” controlling the development of 47.825 acres it owned in Duncan-ville, Texas, into a residential community to be known as “The Greene.” The Declarations provided extensive restrictions requiring the development of the property into (1) lots to be owned and improved by their owners and (2) into “common property” to be owned and improved by all lot owners together in the Association and funded by annual assessments. The “owner” of each lot and a “member” of the Association was defined in the Declaration, Article I, Section 1(e) as follows:

“Owner” and/or “Member” shall mean and refer to the record owner, whether one or more persons or entities, of the fee simple title to any lot situated upon the Properties, but, notwithstanding any applicable theory of the mortgage, shall not mean or refer to the mortgagee unless and until such mortgagee has acquired title pursuant to foreclosure or any proceeding in lieu of foreclosure. [Emphasis added.]

The Declarations provided for annual assessments for maintenance of existing common property, and for special assessments for adding further capital improvements to the common property. Both assessments were the personal obligation of the owner but were secured in their amount, plus interest, collection costs, and attorney’s fees, by a lien on the assessed lots. The record reflects that Southwest had originally ac[760]*760quired thirty-one lots (although lot numbers were not shown) to be improved and sold. In August 1977, Southwest wrote a letter to the Association undertaking that “Southwest Industries will restore all landscaping to its original state, after the moving of our construction office.”

The present controversy between the parties arose in May, 1979, when all of Southwest’s construction was completed. The Association, by letter, itemized the restoration needed to the common property, and the cost thereof, and requested Southwest to fulfill its earlier undertaking. Further, in September, 1979, the Association, by letter, reminded Southwest that it had missed the monthly installment due in August on the annual assessment on each of twenty-one numbered lots. By the time of entry of judgment, the unpaid monthly installments of the annual assessment on each numbered lot included August, September, October, November and December. The Association sought recovery of the unpaid monthly installments of the annual assessment with interest, collection costs, and attorney’s fees, due on twenty-one numbered lots in “The Greene,” plus a total of $738.00 in restoration costs (which had been apportioned to each of the twenty-one numbered lots) and the establishment and foreclosure of the Association’s lien on the twenty-one numbered lots toward the satisfaction of these asserted obligations of Southwest. Southwest answered the Association’s suit with a general denial and a counterclaim which asserted that the Association had breached its duty, set out in the Declarations, to promote the “recreation, health, safety, and welfare” of the residents and that “as a direct result of the plaintiff’s failure to maintain and promote the safety of The Greene, the defendant’s properties have sustained substantial damages by way of destruction and damages by vandals, as well as by theft and removal of its personalty and fixtures from its various properties.”

The Association filed its motion for summary judgment relying upon the affidavit, with supporting documents, of its president and the affidavit of its attorney as to attorney’s fees. Southwest responded to the motion relying upon the affidavit of the chairman of its Board of Directors. Southwest first urges that the summary judgment fails to offer admissible proof that Southwest was, in fact, the owner, that is, the “record holder of fee simple title,” of the numbered lots to which the monthly installments of the annual assessment accrued during the months in question. The Association responds that the affidavit of the president provides this necessary proof in two separate recitals. The president of the Association first asserts in his affidavit that:

3. The Defendant as owner of Lots 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10,13,14,15, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37 and 38 in Block 2 of the Greene Addition, an addition to the City of Duncanville, Texas, was a “member” of the Greene Home Owners Association, Inc., as that term is defined in the Declaration of Covenants and Restrictions and therefore became obligated to pay dues and assessments as provided for in the Declaration.

Both “owner” and “member” are terms equating to “fee simple title” under the Declaration relied upon by both parties. Fee simple title to real estate is not a fact which any witness is capable of knowing but a legal conclusion to be drawn from proven facts, Hodge v. Ellis, 268 S.W.2d 275 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1954) affirmed in part and reversed in part, 154 Tex. 341, 277 S.W.2d 900 (1955). Cross v. Thomas, 264 S.W.2d 539 (Tex.Civ.App.-Fort Worth 1953, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Dimmitt Elevator Co. v. Carter, 70 S.W.2d 615 (Tex.Civ.App-Amarillo 1934, no writ). A qualified witness may express his opinion as to fee simple title, relying on proven facts, to the court which may, by its judgment, legally conclude, on such proven facts and such opinion, that fee simple title exists.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
608 S.W.2d 758, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 4047, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwest-industries-investment-co-v-greene-home-owners-assn-texapp-1980.