City of Bridge City v. State ex rel. City of Port Arthur

• Decision Date: 14 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. 09-89-053,09-89-053
• Citation: 792 S.W.2d 217
• Parties: CITY OF BRIDGE CITY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, ex rel. CITY OF PORT ARTHUR, et al., Appellees. CV.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 217

792 S.W.2d 217

CITY OF BRIDGE CITY, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, ex rel. CITY OF PORT ARTHUR, et al., Appellees.

No. 09-89-053 CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Beaumont.

June 14, 1990.

As Corrected June 18, 1990.

Rehearing Denied July 10, 1990.

H.D. Pate, Bridge City, Otto D. Hewitt, III, Kenneth Bower, McLeod, Alexander, Powel & Apffel, Galveston, for appellant.

H.P. Wright, Wright & Pitre, Port Neches, Doyle Curtis, City of Port Arthur, Earl Black, James M. Black, Black & Black, Port Arthur, Thomas F. Rugg, Asst. Dist. Atty., Beaumont, Robert Q. Keith, Keith & Keith, Johnson City, William E. Heaner, Jr., Gulf States Utilities Co., Beaumont, for appellees.

OPINION

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a bench trial held in the 163rd District Court in and for Orange County. Visiting Judge, Arthur C. Lesher, Jr. of Houston was appointed to try this case. After a trial on the merits, a judgment adverse to the defendant, City of Bridge City, appellant herein, was entered on January 27, 1989 along with findings of fact and conclusions of law. The trial judge found that the Bridge City Ordinances IX-42 and IX-43 were void ab initio and awarded attorney's fees to the City of Port Arthur in the amount of $86,089.85 with certain remittiturs to be triggered by subsequent appeal decisions by the appellant. This Court feels it necessary to present some degree of detail as to the factual history of this case.

The City of Port Arthur, the appellee, (hereafter referred to as Port Arthur) was originally incorporated on May 18, 1898 by act of the Texas Legislature and has been a home rule city continuously since March 8, 1932. Appellee, Port Arthur is domiciled in Jefferson County, Texas according to the evidence and the findings of fact made by the trial court.

In 1913 the City of Port Arthur annexed an area on the east side of the Neches River for the limited purpose of establishing a navigation territory pursuant to TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 1183 (Vernon 1963). From 1950 through 1961, the City of Port Arthur adopted a series of nine annexation ordinances which established its relevant corporate boundary as being the centerline of the Neches River and such annexations included portions of the limited navigation territory. Since 1961 the corporate boundaries of Port Arthur have been the centerline of the Neches River and the limited navigation territory extended along and 2,500 feet east of the centerline of the Neches River in Orange County.

On August 23, 1963, Port Arthur's extraterritorial jurisdiction became effective. TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 970a (Vernon 1963), repealed by Acts 1987, ch. 149, sec. 49(1), 1987 Tex.Gen. and Spec.Laws 707, 766, (now located at TEX.LOCAL GOV'T CODE ANN. sec. 42.001 (Vernon 1988). The old art. 970a was entitled "Municipal Annexation Act". The Municipal Annexation Act established that cities with population in excess of 50,000 but less than 100,000 shall have an extraterritorial jurisdiction of three and one-half (3 1/2) miles from its corporate boundaries. Port Arthur's population since 1960 has been above 57,000 which fixes Port Arthur's extraterritorial jurisdiction at three and one-half (3 1/2) miles beyond the corporate limits of the city.

The Sabine Power Station of Gulf States Utilities Company is located on land that is partially within the three and one-half (3 1/2) mile extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Port Arthur as established in 1963 under the Municipal Annexation Act and judicially affirmed in the 1970 judgment in Cause No. B-77,678 in the 60th Judicial District Court of Jefferson County, Texas. In 1970, pursuant to sec. 3C of art. 970a of the Municipal Annexation Act, Gulf States Utilities petitioned the City of Port Arthur to include the entirety of its Sabine Station Power Plant within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Port Arthur. Such request was granted by the City of Port Arthur and parties entered into an industrial district agreement which is also provided for in the Municipal Annexation Act, TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 970a, sec. 5 (Vernon 1963). The City of Port Arthur receives 1.25 million dollars per year under this industrial district agreement.

On January 5, 1988, by Ordinance IX-42, Bridge City purported to annex territory lying partially within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Port Arthur. Then on August 2, 1988, by Ordinance IX-43, Bridge City purported to annex land lying wholly within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Port Arthur and which included the Gulf States Sabine Power Station. On August 4, 1988, the City of Port Arthur made written request that Bridge City rescind Ordinance IX-43. However, at trial both Ordinances IX-42 and IX-43 were referred to as void. The record before us reveals that no response to this request was made by Bridge City and thereafter Port Arthur gave Bridge City notice of its claim that Ordinances IX-42 and IX-43 were void because they attempted to annex territory in Port Arthur's extraterritorial jurisdiction. Again, Bridge City did not respond and then Port Arthur filed suit for declaratory judgment that Bridge City Ordinances IX-42 and IX-43 are void.

Appellant, Bridge City, filed a plea in abatement asserting (1) that Gulf States Utilities was a necessary party and; (2) that the proceeding must be filed as a quo warranto action. Gulf States Utilities Company intervened. However, the Attorney General for the State of Texas and the Orange County Attorney refused and/or declined to file the quo warranto action. The Criminal District Attorney of Jefferson County filed a petition for leave to file information in quo warranto. The trial court granted leave to file the information in quo warranto and appellant, Bridge City, then filed a motion to show authority alleging that the Criminal District Attorney of Jefferson County lacked authority to file the quo warranto proceeding. After hearing the evidence and argument of counsel, the trial court overruled Bridge City's motion. Upon trial and entry of judgment, notice of appeal was timely filed and the record was placed before this Court in a timely manner.

In the trial court, the Honorable Arthur C. Lesher, Jr. found that the Bridge City Ordinances IX-42 and IX-43 were void ab initio and awarded attorney's fees to the City of Port Arthur.

Appellant brings to this Court eleven points of error. Point of error number one contends that the trial court erred and abused its discretion in entering findings of fact and conclusions of law and in entering judgment against appellant, holding that res judicata or collateral estoppel bound appellant to a 1970 agreed judgment because neither res judicata nor collateral estoppel was applicable.

It is clear that the trial court did not differentiate between the doctrines of collateral estoppel or res judicata and did not specifically use either of those terms in the findings of fact or the conclusions of law. In order to determine what the trial court did will necessitate a review of the trial court's findings of fact and conclusions of law which may or may not relate to the two doctrines in question.

We regret our lengthy rendition of the findings of facts and conclusions of law, however, we feel it necessary for a clearer understanding of this matter. The trial court made the following findings of fact and conclusions of law which appellant contends that neither res judicata nor collateral estoppel apply:

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 13: Port Arthur's extraterritorial jurisdiction extended three and one-half miles from its boundary to the east.

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 14: Port Arthur's extraterritorial jurisdiction overlapped with that of the City of Orange.

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 15: The case styled B-77,678 State of Texas Ex. Rel. City of Orange v. City of Port Neches, et al, in the 60th District Court of Jefferson County, Texas hereinafter shown as B-77,678 was a proceeding brought by the Criminal District Attorney (D/A) of Jefferson County, Texas in the name of the State of Texas as an information in quo warranto.

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 16: Port Arthur was an intervening relator in # B-77,678.

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 17: The Criminal District Attorney of Jefferson County and Port Arthur obtained a judgment in # B-77,678 which pertinent hereto provided:

(6) Pursuant to the Municipal Annexation Act, Article 970a, V. A.T.S., the present extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Port Arthur extends for a distance of three and one-half (3 1/2) miles from the corporate limits of the City of Port Arthur as established by its Ordinance Nos. 2530, 2540 and 2738, all of which were plead by caption in Port Arthur's amended information in the nature of a quo warranto, free and clear of any municipal jurisdiction or extraterritorial claims of the City of Orange or any other municipality of the State of Texas, which three and one-half (3 1/2) miles encompasses substantially all of Gulf States Utilities Company's Sabine Station: and that Gulf States Utilities Company, pursuant to the Municipal Annexation Act, and the release by the City of Orange of all extraterritorial claims thereto, has petitioned the City of Port Arthur to include in its extraterritorial jurisdiction all of the property of Gulf States Utilities Company known as Sabine Station ... is therefore included within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the City of Port Arthur, so as to place all of Gulf States Utilities Company's property designated as Sabine Station, aforesaid, within the exclusive extraterritorial jurisdiction of one municipality, whether or not said property described in Exhibit "A" is located, in its entirety, within three and one-half (3 1/2) miles from the corporate limits of the City of Port Arthur; (emphasis added)

FINDING OF FACT NUMBER 18: No motion for new trial, notice of appeal, appeal bond, or appeal was filed after judgment was entered April 22, 1970 in # B-77,678.

FINDING OF FACT...