State v. David B. Wilson

490 S.W.3d 610, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2129, 2016 WL 796999
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 1, 2016
DocketNO. 01-14-00783-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 490 S.W.3d 610 (State v. David B. Wilson) 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
State v. David B. Wilson, 490 S.W.3d 610, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2129, 2016 WL 796999 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Evelyn V. Keyes, Justice

In this quo warranto proceeding, the State sought to establish that appellee David B. Wilson did not meet the statutory residency requirement when he ran for the trustee position of Houston Community College System (“HCC”) District 2. After a trial, the jury found that Wilson was a resident of HCC District 2 as of the date of the election, November 5, 2013. The trial court denied the State’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered a take-nothing judgment against the State. In three issues the State argues that • (1) the trial court abused its discretion by failing to accurately state in the jury charge the requirements for establishing residency under the Texas Election Code; (2) legally and factually insufficient evidence supported the jury’s finding that Wilson was a resident of District 2; and (3) public policy demands that Wilson not remain on the HCC Board of Trustees (“the Board”).

We affirm.

Background

On August 26, 2013, Wilson, who has long been active in City of Houston politics, filed an application to be placed on the November 2013 ballot for the trustee position of HCC District 2. On the application, ■ Wilson swore that his “permanent residence address” was 5600 West 34th Street (“West 34th Street”), a location that is undisputedly within HCC District 2. Wilson won the election for HCC District 2 Trustee.

One month after the election, the State, by and through the Harris County Attorney’s Office, filed an original quo warranto petition, alleging that Wilson was ineligible to hold the office of HCC District 2 Trustee. The State alleged that it “will show *613 that David B. Wilson was not at the time of the election in November 2013, a resident of HCC District II and is therefore ineligible to serve in that office.” The State sought either to prevent Wilson from holding office or to remove him from office.

At trial, the State called Wilson as its first witness. Wilson testified that he moved to West 34th Street around the beginning of 2012. He agreed with the State that he was not the record owner of West 34th Street; instead, DSW Equipment, Inc., a corporation owned by Wilson’s sister, owns the property and his sister allows him to live there without a written lease and without paying rent. 1 The parties agreed that West 34th Street is a commercial property with a warehouse, but Wilson testified that the second floor of the building is an' apartment and that is where he lives. Wilson testified that he also uses West 34th Street to operate a non-profit school called Texas Electrical Safety Association which provides continuing education courses for electricians.

Wilson agreed with the State that the City of Houston inspected and “redtagged” the property in January 2014, after the election and after the State instituted this proceeding, declaring that it was “not permitted for an occupancy as a residence.” Wilson testified that he applied to obtain an occupancy permit, but the City sent him a “deficiency report” of problems at the property he needed to fix before it would issue him an occupancy permit. He stated that he has not obtained an occupancy permit for the property. During the City’s inspection of the property, the inspector took pictures of the second-floor apartment, which depicted a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, and office. The apartment contained some furniture and personal belongings. Wilson agreed that the bathroom in the apartment lacked a shower and that the office had a desk but no- computer. Wilson testified that he used the shower and the computer located on the first floor of the building. He also testified that he does not cook in the apartment’s kitchen. He characterized the apartment as a place for him to sleep.

Wilson also testified that around 1999 or 2000, he purchased a house for his wife located on Lake Lane (“the Lake Lane house”), which is undisputedly not within HCC District 2. Wilson’s wife is the record title holder of that property. Wilson acknowledged that, in 2006, he filed suit against the Harris County Flood Control District, arguing that it had damaged the Lake Lane house. Wilson agreed that he was the only plaintiff in that case and that his petition identified him as the “assign-ee/owner” of the property. Wilson testified that his wife lives at the Lake Lane house, that his children lived there before they left home for college, that family activities such as birthday parties, holiday dinners, and his son’s wedding occurred at the Lake Lane house, and that he spends his weekends at the Lake Lane house.

The trial court admitted property tax receipts for the 2008-2012 tax years for the Lake Lane house. For three of those years, Wilson paid the property taxes with a check drawn on an account owned by D.S.W. Equipment. For the remaining two years, Wilson signed checks drawn on a joint account that he owned with his *614 wife. The trial court also admitted a document from the Harris County Appraisal District entitled “Real Property Account Information” for the Lake Lane house. This document listed Wilson’s wife as the owner of the Lake Lane house and indicated that a residential homestead exemption had been claimed for the property. The trial court also admitted an exhibit containing pages from Wilson’s federal income tax returns for the 2008-2012 tax years. The tax returns listed both Wilson and his wife, listed their “home address” as the Lake Lane house, and indicated that Wilson and his wife filed their tax returns jointly. Wilson testified that his tax returns list the Lake Lane house as his address because “[his] wife’s residence is more stable than [his]” and he “move[s] every two or three years and change[s his] residence.”

When asked by his counsel why he considers West 34th Street to be his residence, Wilson testified:

I want it to be my residence. I live there. I spend the majority of my time there. I want to live in the city of Houston. The politics in the city of Houston affects my life and my business; so I choose to live there so I can be active in the Houston politics.

He testified that his wife has resided at the Lake Lane house for at least the past ten years, but when he asked her to move inside Houston city limits, she did not want to move from the Lake Lane house. Wilson did not wish to divorce his wife to make it easier for him to establish a residency within the City of Houston.

Wilson testified that he is registered to vote at West 34th Street, and the trial court admitted a copy of his application to change his voter registration to this address, filed in April 2013. He stated that his driver’s license lists West 34th Street as his address, and he receives mail there, including bank statements, utility bills, credit card statements, prescription drug shipments, magazines, and political mail. The trial court admitted numerous pieces of mail addressed either to Wilson or to a company for which he worked, Southwest Signs, at West 34th Street, dated from September 2013 to April 2014. Wilson testified that the fact that the building on the West 34th Street property had an apartment was one of the considerations when DSW Equipment looked to purchase a piece of property.

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Bluebook (online)
490 S.W.3d 610, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 2129, 2016 WL 796999, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-david-b-wilson-texapp-2016.