Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. v. Emmett

459 S.W.3d 578, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 567, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 274, 2015 WL 1285326
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 20, 2015
DocketNo. 13-0584
StatusPublished
Cited by160 cases

This text of 459 S.W.3d 578 (Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. v. Emmett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. v. Emmett, 459 S.W.3d 578, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 567, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 274, 2015 WL 1285326 (Tex. 2015).

Opinion

Justice Johnson

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P. doing business as AT & T Texas (AT & T), a public utility company with facilities attached to a city bridge designated to be [581]*581demolished, sought a declaratory judgment that the Harris County Flood Control District must bear the costs of relocating AT & T’s facilities pursuant to Texas Water Code § 49.228. The trial court determined that the District was not responsible for the relocation costs and the court of appeals affirmed.

We conclude that the District made the relocation necessary within the contemplation of § 49.223. We reverse in part and affirm in part the judgment of the court of appeals.

I. Background

The Harris County Flood Control District is a governmental agency created pursuant to the Texas Constitution. Tex. Const, art. XVI, § 59(b); Act of May 15, 1937, 45th Leg., R.S., ch. 360, 1937 Tex. Gen. Laws 714. Its “rights, powers, privileges, and functions” include “devis[ing] plans and constructing] works to lessen and control floods.” Act of May 15, 1937 § 2e.

The governing body of the District, the Harris County Commissioners Court, adopted the Brays Bayou Flood Damage Reduction Plans in order to widen and deepen the Brays Bayou Channel and thereby reduce flooding around the Bayou. Project Brays calls for the creation of several water detention basins and the destruction of thirty bridges spanning Brays Bayou. The channel could have been widened without demolishing the bridges by widening all of the channel except those portions where the bridges attach, but the District elected to widen the entire channel, which required demolishing and reconstructing the bridges. Destruction of the bridges requires the utilities bn the bridges to be relocated. Texas Water Code § 49.223 requires that relocation of utility facilities be done at the sole expense of the District when the District’s exercise of power “makes necessary” such relocation. Tex. Water Code § 49.223(a).

Project Brays calls for demolition and reconstruction of bridges controlled by the City of Houston, so the District and the City entered into the Brays Bayou Flood Damage Reduction Plan Interlocal Agreement, detailing the responsibilities of each entity. The Interlocal Agreement encompassed two projects, but only Project I is at issue in this case. Under Project I, the District agreed to “design, construct, replace, extend, or modify” a number of the bridges the City controlled. One pertinent aspect of the Interlocal Agreement is Section 8, whereby the City, after receiving notice from the District, would issue relocation notices to third parties such as public utility companies, instructing that they relocate their facilities from a bridge right-of-way at the third parties’ own expense. The relevant language of the agreement is:

The District may require the modification and/or relocation of facilities owned by one or more third parties to Construct Project I bridges and utilities, including but not limited to public utility companies. Where the City has the right to require a public utility company or other third party to .modify and/or relocate its facilities at its own cost, the City shall designate the District as the City’s project manager, and upon written request by the Director of the District made to the Director of Public Works and Engineering, direct the public utility company or other third party to modify and/or relocate its facilities in conjunction with the construction of Project I, at no cost to the City or to the District.

AT & T owns telecommunication facilities on the Forest Hill Street Bridge, which Project Brays designated for destruction. Therefore, as adopted by the [582]*582District, Project Brays requires that AT & T’s facilities be relocated.

After numerous correspondences between AT & T, the City, and the District, the District’s Flood Control Director contacted Michael Marcotte, Director of the Department of Public Works and Engineering for the City. Per the Interlocal Agreement, Marcotte was requested to have the City direct AT & T to relocate its facilities from the Bridge without cost to the City or the District. The City then sent AT & T a letter indicating that if AT & T failed to relocate its facilities, the City would relocate them and assess the costs against AT & T. See Houston, Tex., Code of Ordinances ch. 40, art. XVIII, § 40-393(a) (2005).

AT & T sued the City, Marcotte in his official capacity, and the County Commissioners in their official capacities, seeking an injunction preventing the removal of its facilities from the Bridge and a declaratory judgment that § 49.223 of the Texas Water Code requires the District to bear any relocation costs resulting from Project Brays. The Commissioners responded by filing pleas to the jurisdiction and the remaining parties filed cross-motions for no-evidence and traditional summary judgments.

The trial court granted the Commissioners’ plea to the jurisdiction and summary judgment to Marcotte and the City. The court of appeals affirmed. Sw. Bell Tel. L.P. v. Emmett, 401 S.W.3d 826 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2013). The appeals court reasoned that the relocation costs sought by AT & T were riot clearly ■within the statute’s purview because the District was not shown to have made the relocation necessary, due in large part to (1) the City’s involvement in Project I and (2) the testimony of Project Brays’s Manager that the bridge had not been demolished yet and it could be left intact, resulting in the channel remaining narrow at the bridge crossing. Id. at 838, 840.

In this Court, AT & T contends that the court of appeals misconstrued § 49.223 by failing to give effect to the plain meaning and purpose of the statute, relying instead on Air Liquide America Corp. v. United States Army Corps of Engineers, 359 F.3d 358 (5th Cir.2004), where the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit interpreted a different Texas statute. Further, AT & T maintains that the District “made necessary” the relocation of its facilities within the meaning of § 49.223 because (1) the statute does not mandate that the District be the sole cause of relocation before it is responsible for expenses of relocation, (2) the District has the power to devise and implement flood control plans, and (3) the District adopted the version of Project Brays requiring the demolition and reconstruction of the Bridge, so the availability of another plan leaving the Bridge in place does not lessen the District’s role in necessitating relocation of AT & T’s facilities if they must be relocated as a result of Project Brays.

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459 S.W.3d 578, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 567, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 274, 2015 WL 1285326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwestern-bell-telephone-lp-v-emmett-tex-2015.