Superior Oil Co. v. City of Port Arthur

628 S.W.2d 94, 72 Oil & Gas Rep. 183, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4685
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 22, 1981
Docket8701
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 628 S.W.2d 94 (Superior Oil Co. v. City of Port Arthur) 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
Superior Oil Co. v. City of Port Arthur, 628 S.W.2d 94, 72 Oil & Gas Rep. 183, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4685 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinions

CLAYTON, Justice.

Appellant, Superior Oil Company, filed this suit against the City of Port Arthur, attacking the validity of an annexation ordinance and to enjoin the City from attempting to collect any ad valorem taxes from appellant on its property in question, and in the alternative seeking a declaration that the “discriminatory failure of Defendants to include Plaintiff’s property in an industrial district is an unconstitutional denial of the equal protection of the laws” and that “Plaintiff is entitled to have its property taxed on the same basis as property included in industrial districts by the City....” The trial court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment, upholding the validity of the questioned annexation ordinance.

The City of Port Arthur, a home rule city, by the process of several sequential annexation ordinances, annexed an area extending three marine leagues into the Gulf of Mexico, encompassing a drilling platform, five oil, gas, and mineral leases (leased from the State) and various other production facilities owned by appellant. The last of such ordinances, Ordinance No. 79-116, adopted December 10,1979, annexed the territory in which appellant’s property is situated. An area of a mile in width and 10½ miles in length, extending into the Gulf of Mexico, has been annexed by seven separate ordinances. The City began its southward expansion and annexation in 1969. Originally, it did so to permit it to buttress levies in order to prevent property damage to city residents from rising water and storms.

In reaching its present boundary lines, the City annexed southward down the Sabine River until it reached the mouth thereof, then proceeded in a southwesterly direction along the Texas coastline, and then out into the Gulf of Mexico to the three marine league line. This was done by separate annexation ordinances, all of which complied with the provisions of the Municipal Annexation act, Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 970a (1963). Appellant attacks the validity of the last ordinance No. 79-116.

Appellant, by its fourth, fifth, and sixth points of error complain of the granting of the motion for summary judgment upon the grounds that the annexation ordinance, and the tax assessed against its property, was void “because it constituted a violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” and that the annexation ordinance is void “because it was done solely for purposes of taxation.”

Appellant has grouped these three points under its argument, and we will consider them in the same manner. The sole argument made under the three points is that the Annexation Ordinance No. 79-116 is void because the annexed area, within which appellant’s property is located, was annexed solely for taxation purposes, and the City cannot provide any municipal services to the annexed territory. We disagree and, accordingly, overrule these points of error.

The City of Port Arthur enacted the questioned annexation ordinance pursuant to and in full compliance with the provi[96]*96sions of Article 970a. Appellant’s only complaint is that the annexation and taxation of its property violates the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. These contentions do not present a justiciable matter under such constitutional amendment, and cannot form a basis for rendering void the annexation of appellant’s property.

The United States Supreme Court in Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161, 28 S.Ct. 40, 52 L.Ed. 151 (1907), held that annexation of territory by political subdivisions of the states does not present a justiciable matter under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court states (at 178-9, 28 S.Ct. at 46):

“Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the state.... The number, nature, and duration of the powers conferred upon these corporations and the territory over which they shall be exercised rests in the absolute discretion of the state. . . . Although the inhabitants and property owners may, by such changes, suffer inconvenience, and their property may be lessened in value by the burden of increased taxation, or for any other reason, they have no right, by contract or otherwise, in the unaltered or continued existence of the corporation or its powers, and there is nothing in the Federal Constitution which protects them from these injurious consequences. The power is in the state, and those who legislate for the state are alone responsible for any unjust or oppressive exercise of it.”

Although the Hunter decision has been limited in some voting right cases, the Supreme Court has made it clear that the case is still viable today. In Holt Civic Club v. City of Tuscaloosa, 439 U.S. 60,99 S.Ct. 383, 58 L.Ed.2d 292 (1978), the Supreme Court stated:

“[W]e think that the [Hunter] case continues to have substantial constitutional significance in emphasizing the extraordinarily wide latitude that states have in creating various types of political subdivisions and conferring authority upon them.”

On numerous occasions, the Hunter decision has been applied to municipal annexations. The courts have consistently held that annexations do not present a justicia-ble matter under the Fourteenth Amendment. In Hammonds v. City of Corpus Christi, 226 F.Supp. 456, 458-9 (S.D.Tex.1964), affirmed, 343 F.2d 162 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 382 U.S. 837, 86 S.Ct. 85, 15 L.Ed.2d 80 (1965), the Court states: “The annexation of lands to a city or town has been held without exception to be purely a political matter, entirely within the power of the Legislature of the State to regulate.... Although we may disagree with the mode of annexation or annexations themselves, the remedy of those aggrieved is not in the courts, but in the State Legislature.” See Detroit Edison Company v. East China Township School Dist. # 3, 247 F.Supp. 296 (E.D.Mich.1965), affirmed 378 F.2d 225 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 932, 88 S.Ct. 296, 19 L.Ed.2d 284 (1967); Deane Hill Country Club, Inc. v. Knoxville, 379 F.2d 321 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 975, 88 S.Ct. 476, 19 L.Ed.2d 467 (1967); Berry v. Bourne, 588 F.2d 422 (4th Cir. 1978).

This has also been the holding of the courts of Texas. See Winship v. City of Corpus Christi, 373 S.W.2d 844 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1963, writ ref’d n.r.e.), dism’d w.o.j. and cert. denied, 379 U.S. 646, 85 S.Ct. 612, 13 L.Ed.2d 551 (1965); Carter v. Hamlin Hospital District, 538 S.W.2d 671 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1976, writ ref’d n.r.e.), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 984, 97 S.Ct. 1680, 52 L.Ed.2d 378 (1977); City of Pasadena v. Houston Endowment, Inc., 438 S.W.2d 152, 156 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1969, writ ref’d n.r.e.); City of Wichita Falls v. State ex rel. Vogtsberger, 533 S.W.2d 927

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Superior Oil Co. v. City of Port Arthur
628 S.W.2d 94 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)

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628 S.W.2d 94, 72 Oil & Gas Rep. 183, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4685, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/superior-oil-co-v-city-of-port-arthur-texapp-1981.