Board of Equalization of City of Plano v. Wells

• Decision Date: 19 August 1971
• Docket Number: No. 17780,17780
• Parties: The BOARD OF EQUALIZATION OF the CITY OF PLANO, Texas and Plano Independent School District, et al., Appellants, v. John WELLS et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 88

473 S.W.2d 88

The BOARD OF EQUALIZATION OF the CITY OF PLANO, Texas and Plano Independent School District, et al., Appellants, v. John WELLS et al., Appellees.

No. 17780.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas,

Dallas.

Aug. 19, 1971.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 5, 1971.

John Plath Green, Green, Gilmore, Crutcher & Rothpletz, Dallas, Larry Brandon, Perdue & Brandon, Amarillo, for appellants.

Bert Bader, Bader, Wilson, Menaker & Cox, Dallas, for appellees.

CLAUDE WILLIAMS, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from an order granting temporary injunction. John Wells, B. J. Donihoo and W. C. Carpenter, taxpayers of the Plano Independent School District, and John Brodhead, Walter H. Stephens, R. A. Milraney, taxpayers of both the City of Plano and Plano Independent School District, and the Plano Community Taxpayers Association, composed of more than 1,419 persons who are taxpayers either in the City of Plano, or the Plano Independent School District, brought this action against the Board of Equalization of the City of Plano, and its individual members, Del Morton, G. R. Merriman, John Strawn, Seth Abbott and Laufton Moore; and Troy White, Tax Assessor and Collector of the City of Plano, and Tax Assessor for the Plano Independent School District, seeking a temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, permanent injunction, and mandamus. Plaintiffs alleged that the Board of Equalization which had been appointed by the City of Plano and which, by contract between the City of Plano and the Plano Independent School District, served as Board of Equalization for the school district also, was improperly constituted and was acting without lawful or legal authority; that there were no members on the Board of Equalization who lived outside the City of Plano and in the Plano Independent School District which existed outside the city limits of Plano, and therefore the persons residing outside the City had no representation and were deprived of due process of law and equal protection of the law. Plaintiffs also charged that the tax assessor and collector of the city and school district has prepared a tax roll based on excessive evaluations which are so are in excess of the true values or market values that they cannot form a basis for determining proper values of property subject to taxation and are therefore invalid. Plaintiffs prayed for a temporary restraining order against the members of the Board of Equalization restraining and enjoining them from acting as a Board for the city or the school district or from holding any hearings as to values of property subject to taxation; that Troy White be restrained and enjoined from presenting the tax rolls to the City and the School District. Plaintiffs further asked for a Writ of Mandamus directing and requiring Troy White to prepare a tax roll for the city and the school district which would include all the real and personal property of the city and district, which tax roll would reflect true market value of said property in accordance with the Constitution and the laws of the State. Plaintiffs prayed for temporary and permanent injunctions carrying into effect the restraining order requested.

The trial court granted the temporary restraining order. Following a hearing the trial court, on the 19th day of July 1971, granted a temporary injunction, the material portions of which are as follows:

'It is therefore, ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that a temporary injunction be, and same is hereby, granted against Troy White, or a successor, restraining and enjoining him from submitting the tax roll which he has prepared which is the subject of this hearing for the Plano Independent School District to the other defendants, Del Morton, G. R. Merriman, John Strawn, Seth Abbott and Laufton Moore, individually and acting as a Board of Equalization for the City of Plano.

'It is further ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that a temporary injunction be, and same is hereby, granted against Troy White, or a successor, restraining and enjoining him from submitting the tax roll which he has prepared which is the subject of this hearing for the City of Plano to the other defendants, Del Morton, G. R. Merriman, John Strawn, Seth Abbott and Laufton Moore, individually and acting as Board of Equalization for the City of Plano.'

No other relief sought by Plaintiffs was granted. From this order the defendants have appealed.

In their first point of error appellants contend that the temporary injunction granted by the trial court should be dissolved because the order itself does not comply with the specific provisions of Rule 683, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, in that the order does not set forth the reasons for the granting of the order. This point is sustained.

Rule 683, T.R.C.P., provides:

'Every order granting an injunction and every restraining order shall set forth the reasons for its issuance; shall be specific in terms * * *'.

The obvious purpose of this rule is to adequately inform a party what he is enjoined from doing and the reasons why he is so enjoined . The requirement of the rule for setting out specifically the reasons for the granting of a temporary injunction is mandatory and the failure to comply amounts to an abuse of discretion and reversable error. Robertson Transports, Inc. v. Transport Company of Texas, 256 S.W.2d 134 (Tex.Civ.App., 1953), reversed on other grounds, 152 Tex. 551, 261 S.W.2d 549; Gulf Oil Corp. v. Walton, 317 S.W.2d 260 (El Paso 1958); Eastex Wildlife Conservation Assoc. v. Jasper, 450 S.W.2d 904; (Tex.Civ.App., Beaumont, 1970); Smith v. State of Texas, 450 S.W.2d 393 (Tex.Civ.App., Austin, 1970).

The order of the district judge before us contains no language which could be construed as being in compliance with the specific term of the rule. Although appellees allege a large number of reasons for the issuance of an injunction the order itself assigns none. For this reason alone the decree must fall.

While it is the established rule in Texas that the granting or refusing of a temporary injunction in within the sound discretion of the district court, and the court's action will not be disturbed on appeal unless it clearly appears from the record that there has been an abuse of such discretion, it is also true that the trial court's discretion is not unlimited and does not extend to the erroneous application of the law to the facts. Thus the trial judge may abuse his discretion when he fails or refuses to apply the law to the undisputed facts before him. Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Egan, 126 Tex. 160, 86 S.W.2d 722 (Tex.Comm.App.1935 Opinion adopted); Harding v. Pearson, 48 S.W.2d 964 (Comm.App.1932); Costello v. Hillcrest State Bank, 380 S.W.2d 780 (Tex.Civ.App., Dallas, 1964); John L. Bramlet & Co. v. Hunt, 371 S.W.2d 787 (Tex.Civ.App., Dallas 1963).

We agree with appellants that the trial court abused its discretion in applying the law to the undisputed facts set forth in this record.

First, appellants leveled an attack upon the Board of Equalization contending that it was either illegally constituted or illegally functioning for the following reasons:

(1) That the Board did not have its first meeting on or before the 1st day of May 1971, such date being fixed by the Charter of the City of Plano;

(2) That subsequent to June 21, 1971, one of the members of the Board of Equalization resigned and the City Council of the City of Plano attempted to illegally and unlawfully appoint another person to act as a member of the Board; and

(3) That all the members of the Board of Equalization were residents of the City of Plano and thus those persons living outside the City of Plano had no representation on the Board and therefore denied due process and equal protection of the law.

We find no basis in law for the validity of any of these assaults upon the Board.

Article 1175, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. of Texas provides that home rule cities, such as Plano, shall have full power of local self government including the right to provide for the mode and method of assessing taxes. The City of Plano, in its Charter, has granted to its City Council the power to levy, assess and collect an annual tax upon all property within the City. Section 9.20 of the Charter provides for the appointment of a Board of Equalization by the City Council, such Board to be composed of no fewer than three nor more than five persons who shall be qualified voters and real property owners in the City of Plano. The same section of the Charter provides that at the same meeting the City...