Trail Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Houston

255 S.W.3d 105, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 2575, 2007 WL 4157244
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 9, 2008
Docket10-05-00382-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 255 S.W.3d 105 (Trail Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Houston) 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
Trail Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Houston, 255 S.W.3d 105, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 2575, 2007 WL 4157244 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

OPINION

BILL VANCE, Justice.

This appeal concerns Trail Enterprises’ inverse-condemnation claim against the City of Houston for an ordinance prohibiting oil drilling on Trail’s property near Lake Houston. “An inverse condemnation occurs when property is taken for public use without process or without proper condemnation proceedings, and the property [108]*108owner attempts to recover compensation therefor.” Tarrant Reg’l Water Dist. v. Gragg, 43 S.W.3d 609, 614 (Tex.App.-Waco 2001), aff'd, 151 S.W.3d 546 (Tex.2004); see U.S. Const, amend. V; Tex. Const, art. I, § 17. The trial court initially found the City hable on Trail’s takings claim, and a jury determined the amount of Trail’s damages. Thereafter, the trial court determined that Trail’s claims were not ripe and dismissed the claims for want of jurisdiction. Trail appeals. We reverse and render.

Motions for Summary Judgment. Most of Trail’s issues concern the trial court’s jurisdiction. In Trail’s fourth and fifth issues, it contends that the trial court erred in granting the City’s motions for summary judgment, which were premised upon the lack of jurisdiction. In Trail’s seventh issue, Trail contends that the trial court erred in overruling Trail’s motion for summary judgment on jurisdiction. In Trail’s first three issues, it contends that the trial court erred in rendering judgment dismissing Trail’s cause for lack of jurisdiction.

The parties’ motions for summary judgment concern whether Trail’s claims were ripe, specifically whether Trail exhausted its remedies within the City. “Ripeness is an element of subject matter jurisdiction.” Mayhew v. Town of Sunnyvale, 964 S.W.2d 922, 928 (Tex.1998); accord McAllen Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Cortez, 66 S.W.3d 227, 231 (Tex.2001); Waco Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Gibson, 22 S.W.3d 849, 850, 851 (Tex.2000). “A case is not ripe when determining whether the plaintiff has a concrete injury depends on contingent or hypothetical facts, or upon events that have not yet come to pass.” Gibson at 852. However, “futile variance requests or re-applications are not required” in order for a regulatory takings claim to be ripe. Mayhew at 929. Moreover, where an ordinance “prohibit[s] precisely the use” the property owner “intended to make of th[e] property, and nothing in the ordinance suggests] any exceptions would be made,” the owner’s “taking claim [i]s ripe upon enactment” of the ordinance “because at that moment the ‘permissible uses of the property [are] known to a reasonable degree of certainty.’ ” Hallco Tex., Inc. v. McMullen County, 221 S.W.3d 50, 60 (Tex.2006) (quoting Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 533 U.S. 606, 620, 121 S.Ct. 2448, 150 L.Ed.2d 592 (2001)).

The City’s motion raised two grounds: that Trail’s claim was not ripe, see Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c), and that there was no evidence that Trail’s claim was ripe, see Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(i). In Trail’s motion for summary judgment, it contended that its claim was ripe upon enactment of the ordinance.

In a traditional summary-judgment motion, “[t]he judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if’ the summary-judgment evidence “show[s] that ... there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law_” Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c). In a no-evidence summary-judgment motion, “[t]he court must grant the motion unless the respondent produces summary judgment evidence raising a genuine issue of material fact.” Id. 166a(i). “The reviewing court must affirm summary judgment if any of the summary judgment grounds are meritorious.” Tex. Workers’ Comp. Comm’n v. Patient Advocates, 136 S.W.3d 643, 648 (Tex.2004); accord Star-Telegram, Inc. v. Doe, 915 S.W.2d 471, 473 (Tex.1995). “When both parties move for summary judgment and the trial court grants one motion and denies the other, the reviewing court should review the summary judgment evidence presented by both sides and determine all questions presented and render the judg[109]*109ment the trial court should have rendered.” Patient Advocates at 648; accord FM Props. Operating Co. v. City of Austin, 22 S.W.3d 868, 872 (Tex.2000).

In the City’s traditional motion, the City moved for summary judgment on the ground that Trail’s “takings claim lack[ed] the necessary predicate of the denial of a drilling permit and the exhaustion of administrative remedies.” (Ill C.R. at 939.) In the City’s no-evidence motion, the City moved for summary judgment on the ground that there was “no evidence that [Trail] applied for and w[as] denied a drilling permit or otherwise exhausted [its] administrative remedies prior to initiating th[e] lawsuit.” (Id. at 940.) In Trail’s response to the City’s no-evidence motion, Trail argued that it “d[id] not need to produce evidence of a permit application,” and it did not.1 (Id. at 1069; see Trail Br. at 12.) Trail “concede[d] that no formal application was filed on [its] behalf with [the City] to obtain a permit to drill wells on [Trail’s] mineral properties.” (Ill C.R. at 1058.) Rather, Trail argues that such an application would have been futile: Trail’s “claims were ripe, as a matter of law, upon the City’s passage of’ the ordinance and Trail “is not required to produce evidence on this element.” (Br. at 18.) In Trail’s motion, Trail argued that the ordinance does not provide for a variance from its prohibition.

Trail’s claims were ripe upon enactment of the ordinance. The trial court erred in holding that Trail’s claims were not ripe and that the court thus lacked jurisdiction. We sustain Trail’s first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and seventh issues.2 The trial court’s judgment dated August 29, 2005, will be reversed.

Motion for Judgment. Trail’s sixth issue contends that the trial court erred in overruling Trail’s motions for judgment. Trail argues that judgment should now be rendered for Trail on the finding of liability and the jury’s determination of damages. We have concluded that the court erred in holding that Trail’s claims were not ripe. Thus, we also sustain the sixth issue. The judgment appealed from, signed on August 29, 2005, recites the history of the litigation and, prior to addressing the ripeness issue, states:

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Related

City of Houston v. Trail Enterprises, Inc.
300 S.W.3d 736 (Texas Supreme Court, 2009)
Trail Enterprises, Inc. v. City of Houston
255 S.W.3d 105 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
255 S.W.3d 105, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 2575, 2007 WL 4157244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/trail-enterprises-inc-v-city-of-houston-texapp-2008.