Teer v. Duddleston

641 S.W.2d 569, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5012
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 10, 1982
DocketC2933
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 641 S.W.2d 569 (Teer v. Duddleston) 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
Teer v. Duddleston, 641 S.W.2d 569, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5012 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

JAMES, Justice.

The original opinion is withdrawn and the following opinion is substituted in its place.

This is an appeal from the granting of a summary judgment declaring certain ordinances of the City of Bellaire (hereafter “the City") valid and ordering that Plaintiffs, Reggie Teer and Andy Hunzicker (hereafter “appellants”), take nothing as against Defendants, Wayne B. Duddleston, H-R-D-37, Ltd., and the City. We refer to Mr. Duddleston and H-R-D-37, Ltd. as “ap-. pellees.” The City did not file a brief in support of the judgment.

Although appellants bring forward nine points of error, we find this case presents only three main questions. First, was the summary judgment appealed from final so as to vest this court with jurisdiction over the appeal? Second, was the summary judgment proof sufficient to support the judgment? Third, are the ordinances under attack valid as a matter of law? We answer all three questions in the affirmative and accordingly affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Appellants sought two items of relief in the trial court: (1) a declaratory judgment decreeing that certain ordinances of the City are void and (2) an injunction barring enforcement of said ordinances. The basis of appellants’ suit was to prevent the improvement and development of a tract of land situated near their residences. This tract, approximately thirty-eight (38) acres in size, is known as the Marian tract. Ap-pellees submitted to the City a proposed building and site plan for the development of a “planned development district” which was authorized by former Chapter 24 of the Code of Ordinances of the City. Appellees, owners of the land, plan to develop the tract which is bounded by Fournace Place, Avenue B, Bissonnet Street, and Interstate Highway 610. Appellant Teer’s home abuts on and is across Fournace Place from the Marian tract and appellant Hunzicker’s home abuts on and is across Avenue B from such tract.

On April 24,1972, the Bellaire City Council passed Ordinance No. 1842 which provided for a “planned development district” as one of eighteen enumerated zoning districts. These planned development districts could be created by one of two methods: “(1) by approval of an application as an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance or (2) by designation of a Planned Development District on the map and in the ordinance at the time of the original enactment of a comprehensive revision of the Zoning Ordinance.”

Ordinance No. 1842 established Planned Development-2 through Planned Development-13. It provided that Planned Development-3 could combine uses for the 0 (office) and LR (light retail) districts. Ordinance No. 1842, which was subsequently amended, is the basis of former Chapter 24. According to a schedule of uses in § 24r-85 through § 24-96 of former Chapter 24, uses permitted in the O and LR districts included office buildings, theaters, restaurants and hotels. Section 24-186 of former Chapter 24 also provided that area, density, coverage, floor area ratio, yard, height, parking and off-street loading regulations for Planned Development-3 should comply with the minimum standards established in the 0 and LR districts. Since the development proposed by appellees did not exactly conform to the density, yard, height, and other provisions originally established by former Chapter 24 for Planned Development-3, ap-pellees applied for an amendment to the planned development provisions of former Chapter 24. Thereafter, on March 17,1980, Ordinance No. 80-018 was enacted which amended the basic conditions and regulations in former Chapter 24 applicable to Planned Development-3, approved the *572 building and site plans of appellees, and set out certain conditions and requirements to be met in developing the Marian tract.

On April 23,1980, the City Council enacted new Chapter 24. This new Chapter 24 provides for a different zoning methodology with respect to planned developments. Rather than indicating certain areas on the zoning map as planned development districts and establishing basic conditions for their development, the new Chapter 24 provides that a planned development may be established in any district, except as delineated, by compliance with certain restrictions and limitations and by resort to the amendatory procedures of new Chapter 24. Since planned development districts as such have been abolished and new districts created, the Marian tract is now encompassed within an area denominated the Loop 610 District. Provision is made in new Chapter 24 for two different types of planned developments within the Loop 610 District, namely, “Office Plaza Hotel,” and “Residential Office Plaza.” Uses allowable within the new Loop 610 District include residential dwellings, office buildings, restaurants, theaters, parks and retail sales and service establishments. Ordinance No. 80-018, approving the building and site plans of Planned Development-3, is incorporated in and adopted as § 24-802 of Article VIII of new Chapter 24.

Prior to the enactment of new Chapter 24 the City had authorized the development of a variety of planned development districts in addition to Planned Development-3. The City Council approved the building and site plans for all of these planned developments and they have been developed in substantial compliance with the ordinances providing for each development.

Appellants brought suit shortly after the enactment of new Chapter 24. Appellees followed with a motion for summary judgment. The City did not file such a motion. However, the trial court’s judgment purported to adjudicate appellants’ rights as against the City since the judgment provides that appellants “do have and recover nothing of, from and against Defendants, City of Bellaire, ..., that Defendants, City of Bellaire ..., be and they are hereby discharged; [and] that the above-referenced action be, ..., dismissed with prejudice; . . .. ” Throughout this entire litigation, the City has remained passive, having only filed an original answer and a response to appellees’ interrogatories.

Appellants now assert that the trial court’s judgment is interlocutory and thus not appealable because “[it] does not dispose of all the parties in the case and a severance was not ordered.” This is the basis of appellants’ motion to dismiss the appeal for want of jurisdiction previously filed with this Court and their points of error 1 and 2. Upon hearing oral arguments by both sides at the hearing on the motion, we denied that motion and deferred a written decision on the question of jurisdiction until formal submission of the ease on appeal.

JURISDICTION

In North East Independent School District v. Aldridge, 400 S.W.2d 893 (Tex.1966), the Texas Supreme Court held as follows:

When a judgment, not intrinsically interlocutory in character, is rendered and entered in a case regularly set for a conventional trial on the merits, no order for a separate trial of issues having been entered pursuant to Rule 174, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, it will be presumed for appeal purposes that the Court intended to, and did, dispose of all parties legally before it and of all issues made by the pleadings between such parties.

400 S.W.2d at 897, 898.

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641 S.W.2d 569, 1982 Tex. App. LEXIS 5012, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/teer-v-duddleston-texapp-1982.