Texas General Land Office v. Crystal Clear Water Supply Corp.

449 S.W.3d 130, 2014 WL 4177461
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 22, 2014
DocketNo. 03-13-00528-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 449 S.W.3d 130 (Texas General Land Office v. Crystal Clear Water Supply Corp.) 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
Texas General Land Office v. Crystal Clear Water Supply Corp., 449 S.W.3d 130, 2014 WL 4177461 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

J. WOODFIN JONES, Chief Justice.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (the Commission) granted the petition of the Texas General Land Office (the GLO) for expedited release of a portion of its property from the certificated service area of Crystal Clear Water Supply Corporation (Crystal Clear). See Tex. Water Code § 13.254(a-5) (providing for expedited release of property not receiving water or sewer service from certificate holder). In its suit for judicial review of the Commission’s order, Crystal Clear contended that the Commission erred in granting the GLO’s petition for decertification because the statutory requirements for expedited release pursuant to section 13.254(a-5) were not met. Specifically, Crystal Clear argued that the property the GLO sought to have decertified was in fact “receiving water service” from Crystal Clear and thus was not eligible for expedited release under section 13.254(a-5). Crystal Clear also asserted that the decer-tification petition should not have been approved because the GLO excluded from its request for expedited release certain other tracts it owned within Crystal Clear’s certificated area. In addition to its suit for judicial review, Crystal Clear sought declarations (1) regarding the proper statutory construction of certain provisions of the Water Code and related agency rules and (2) that the Commission’s order violated its constitutional rights to due process and due course of law under [133]*133the United States and Texas Constitutions. The Commission filed a plea to the jurisdiction challenging the district court’s subject-matter jurisdiction over the requests for declaratory relief. After a hearing, the district court reversed the Commission’s order granting the GLO’s petition for de-certification but granted the Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction as to Crystal Clear’s claims for declaratory judgment. In this appeal, the Commission and the GLO challenge the part of the district court’s judgment that reversed the Commission’s decertification order; by cross-appeal, Crystal Clear challenges the portion of the judgment that granted the Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction. As to the merits of the decertification order, we will reverse that part of the district court’s judgment and render judgment affirming the Commission’s order. See Tex. Gov’t Code § 2001.174(1). We will affirm the portion of the judgment that granted the Commission’s plea to the jurisdiction.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Crystal Clear is a water-supply corporation regulated by the Commission. See Tex. Water Code § 13.001-515 (establishing comprehensive regulatory system to regulate retail public utilities); .002(19) (“retail public utility” includes water-supply corporation operating, maintaining, or controlling facilities for providing potable water service for compensation). Crystal Clear holds a certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) that authorizes it to be the exclusive water-service provider within a specifically defined territory, which is referred to as its “certificated area.” See id. § 13.244 (setting forth requirements for application for CCN). . The GLO owned approximately 1,984 acres of land that was located within Crystal Clear’s certificated area.1 The GLO filed a petition with the Commission seeking to remove approximately 1,842 acres of that land (the Decertified Property) from Crystal Clear’s certificated area pursuant to Water Code section 13.254(a-5). Section 13.254(a~5) provides that the owner of a tract of land that is 25 acres or larger and located in certain counties, including Co-mal County, may petition for, and is entitled to, expedited release of that tract from a certificated area if the tract is “not receiving water or sewer service.” Id. § 13.254(a-5).2 The 1,842 acres the GLO sought to decertify was composed of five contiguous tracts of land, each of which was greater than 25 acres in size. The GLO provided the Commission with deeds of conveyance that it represented corresponded to each of the separate tracts. Excluded from the request for expedited release were approximately 151 acres of the GLO’s property, which consisted of five additional tracts (the Excluded Property) 3 that were adjacent to the Decerti-fied Property.

In its petition, the GLO stated that the Decertified Property was not receiving wa[134]*134ter or sewer service from Crystal Clear. The petition was supported by the affidavit of Hal Croft, Deputy Commissioner of the GLO’s Asset Management Division, in which he averred that “[the Decertified Property] is not receiving water or sewer service from Crystal Clear Water Supply Corporation.” In its brief in support of the petition, the GLO stated that there were “no active water meters or water connections on and no facilities providing current service to the [Decertified Property].” (All parties agree that the Decerti-fied Property was not receiving sewer service from Crystal Clear.) According to the GLO, there was “one abandoned, empty meter box on the eastern portion of the property, which Crystal Clear itself classifies as inoperative.”

Crystal Clear filed a response in opposition to the petition in which it asserted, first, that the GLO could not “selectively” carve out a portion of its property that had no active water connections — the Decerti-fied Property — and then seek expedited release of that property. Rather, Crystal Clear contended that the ten contiguous tracts owned by the GLO should be considered as a single tract of approximately 2,000 acres and, by virtue of the existence of several active water connections on the tracts comprising the Excluded Property, the entire 2,000 acre tract should be considered to be “receiving water service” from Crystal Clear. Crystal Clear also argued that, even if it was proper for the GLO to seek expedited release of only the Decertified Property, sufficient facilities existed on and near the Decertified Property that it too was “receiving water service” and therefore could not qualify for expedited release under section 13.254(a-5).

The Commission concluded that the GLO had satisfied the criteria in section 13.254(a-5) and approved the request for expedited release of the Decertified Property from Crystal Clear’s certificated area. Crystal Clear’s motion for rehearing was overruled by operation of law. Crystal Clear then filed a suit for judicial review in Travis County district court. In the district court, Crystal Clear again asserted that the GLO could not carve out a portion of its property for decertification and, in any event, that the Decertified Property was “receiving water service” from Crystal Clear. Crystal Clear alleged that it had “significant physical facilities, including water lines, connections, wells, plants, and other facilities, both located on, near and adjacent to the Decertified Property that are committed and/or used by Crystal Clear to provide water service.” Crystal Clear also alleged that it had secured a diverse, long-term supply of water in order to serve its certificated area. Crystal Clear argued that when “a utility has ‘facilities’ in connection with certain property, it provides ‘service’ to that property.” Crystal Clear also sought declaratory relief pursuant to the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act (UDJA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). See

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
449 S.W.3d 130, 2014 WL 4177461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-general-land-office-v-crystal-clear-water-supply-corp-texapp-2014.