Stoughton v. City of Fort Worth

277 S.W.2d 150, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2535
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 25, 1955
Docket15613
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 277 S.W.2d 150 (Stoughton v. City of Fort Worth) 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
Stoughton v. City of Fort Worth, 277 S.W.2d 150, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2535 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinions

BOYD, Justice.

The trial court rendered judgment permanently enjoining appellant C. V. Stough-ton from “storing, threatening to store or causing to be stored; keeping, threatening to keep or causing to be kept; possessing, threatening to possess or causing to be possessed; transporting, threatening to transport or causing to be transported; selling, threatening to sell or causing to be sold; offering for sale, threatening to offer for sale or causing to be offered for sale any fireworks of any description within the limits of an area described as being the corporate limits of the City of Fort Worth and the area immediately adjacent and contiguous to the city limits of the City of Fort Worth and extending for a distance outside the city limits for a total of 5,000 feet, * * * V

Appellee City of Fort Worth filed the suit, alleging that appellant had stored, transported, kept, used, possessed, sold and offered for sale, and, unless permanently enjoined, will store, transport, keep, use, possess, sell and offer for sale fireworks within the jurisdiction of appellee, at a warehouse on or near Highway 80, near the community of Westland, within an area immediately adjacent and contiguous to ap-pellee’s city limits, and within 5,000 feet of said city limits; appellee further alleged that on July 29, 1953, its City Council enacted an ordinance as authorized by Section 19, of Article 1175, Vernon’s Ann.Tex. Civ. St., declaring it to be unlawful for any person to “have, keep, store, use, manufacture, assemble, sell, handle, transport, receive, offer for sale, or have in his possession with intent to sell, * * * any fireworks of any description” within appellee’s city limits or within any area adjacent and contiguous to said city limits extending outside the city limits for a total of 5,000 feet; that neither appellee nor its inhabitants have an adequate remedy at law, and that appellee and its inhabitants will suffer irreparable injury and damage to their health, safety, and welfare unless such injunction should be granted.

Upon the trial, it was shown that appellant was engaged in the fireworks business, about ninety-five per cent of which was wholesale; that his place of business was a warehouse located approximately 4,200 feet from appellee’s city limits; that he was storing, keeping, possessing, and transporting fireworks at such warehouse; that he was selling and offering for sale fireworks at such place; that unless enjoined, he will continue to store, possess, and keep fireworks in said warehouse, and will sell them and offer them for sale, and will transport fireworks in an area within 5,000' feet of the city limits.

At appellant’s request, the court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court took judicial notice that fireworks are inherently dangerous, and that their presence within the city limits, and outside of the city limits for a distance of 5,000 feet of the city limits, endangers the health, safety and welfare of persons, and the safety of property, within such territorial limits. The court concluded that the presence of fireworks in such area constituted a public nuisance per se; that since from the record it is seen that the nuisance will be of a recurring nature, appellee does not have an adequate remedy at law; and that the ordinance prohibiting the storing and handling of fireworks within the city limits and in an area within 5,000 feet of the city limits is valid. The court further found that the fireworks were packaged, crated and maintained in conformity with regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

By his first three points, appellant assigns as error the action of the court in overruling his exceptions to appellee’s petition. The exceptions were that the petition failed sufficiently to allege in what way appellant’s [152]*152acts constituted a public nuisance in fact; that the allegation that appellee and its inhabitants had no adequate remedy at law was but a conclusion of the pleader; and that the petition failed' to contain a plain and intelligible statement of grounds for an injunction.

The material portions of the petition are set out above, and we think they are sufficient to state a cause of action.

By numerous points, appellant assails the findings of fact and conclusions of law. In substance, his complaint is that there is no' evidence to support 'the finding that fireworks are-inherently dangerous and that their presence in an area within the city limits and outside of the city limits for a distance’of 5,000 feet endangers the safety and welfare of persons and property within such territorial limits; that the court erred in concluding that the storing and handling of fireworks in appellant’s warehouse constituted a public nuisance per se; that the injunction was wrongfully granted since there was no proof or finding that the manner in which appellant conducted his fireworks business constituted a nuisance in fact; that the ordinance was adopted without a lawful delegation of legislative power, ánd that the court erred in holding that it conferred extra-territorial jurisdiction upon appellee to control, limit, or prohibit fireworks outside of the city limits; that if Section 19, of Article 1175, undertakes to confer such power, it is invalid; and that the injunction deprives appellant of property without due process of law.

Section 19, of Article 1175, provides that “Each city shall have the power to define all nuisances and prohibit the same within the city and outside the city limits for a distance of five thousand feet; * *

The ordinance in question was introduced in evidence. It defines the term “fireworks” and provides: that “It shall be unlawful for any person to have, keep, store, use, manufacture, assemble, sell, handle, transport, receive, offer for sale, or have in his possession with intent to sell, * * * any fireworks of any description; ” that the presence of any fireworks within the 'jurisdiction of the City of Fort Worth in violation of the ordinance is declared to be a, nuisance; that any person who violates the ordinance shall be fined not to exceed $200 for each offense, and that each day a violation is permitted to exist shall constitute a separate offense; that the City may file suit for injunction to prevent the storing, keeping, and transportation of fireworks in violation of the ordinance; that the ordinance shall be in force in the city limits and within the area immediately adjacent.and contiguous to the city limits and extending for a distance outside the city limits for a total of 5,000 feet, and that it shall be unlawful to do or perform any act in- violation of the ordinance within such area of 5,000 feet outside tbe city limits.

Although it is. only in clear cases that courts are warranted.in going behind the findings of a legislative body that a certain thing is a nuisance and determining the contrary, nevertheless, a city cannot by ordinance make that a nuisance which is not one in fact. Crossman v. City of Galveston, 112 Tex. 303, 247 S.W. 810; Spann v. City of Dallas, 111 Tex. 350, 235 S.W. 513; Stockwell v. State, 110 Tex. 550, 221 S.W. 932, 12 A.L.R. 1116; Murphy v. Wright, Tex.Civ.App., 115 S.W.2d 448 ; 20 R.C.L., p. 389, sec. 12. The controlling question, therefore, seems to be whether the transporting, storing, selling, and hauling of fireworks within 5,000 feet of appellee’s city limits constitute a public nuisance per se.

In a broad sense, a nuisance is anything that works injury, harm or prejudice to an individual or the public. 20 R.C.L., p. 380, sec. 1.

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Bluebook (online)
277 S.W.2d 150, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stoughton-v-city-of-fort-worth-texapp-1955.