City of Corpus Christi v. Allen
Decision Date | 14 January 1953 |
Docket Number | No. A-3636,A-3636 |
Citation | 152 Tex. 137,254 S.W.2d 759 |
Parties | CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI v. ALLEN et al. |
Court | Texas Supreme Court |
I. M. Singer, City Atty., and Wm. R. Anderson, Jr., Asst. City Atty., Corpus Christi, for petitioner.
John J. Pichinson and Norman L. Utter, Corpus Christi, for respondents.
This cause is a consolidation of four suits filed by the City of Corpus Christi, petitioner, against four different defendants, J. W. Allen et al., respondents, seeking to enjoin each (1) from operating an automobile wrecking yard contrary to the provisions of petitioner's zoning ordinance and (2) from operating such yard upon the public sidewalks and street surrounding the yard.
Upon a stipulation of facts, the trial court granted a permanent injunction as prayed by petitioner.
The Court of Civil Appeals reversed the trial court and dissolved the injunction to the extent that it restrained each respondent from operating a wrecking yard but left it undisturbed in so far as it enjoined each 'from trespassing and encroaching upon the sidewalks, public easements and public street areas adjacent to' his place of business. 247 S.W.2d 130. Its action in the latter respect is not complained of here.
Under authority of Arts. 1011a, et seq., Vernon's Ann.Civ.Stats., petitioner passed its first comprehensive zoning ordinance on August 27, 1937, which is amended by ordinances passed on September 5, 1939, March 5, 1942, May 15, 1945, and May 4, 1948. This last ordinance is the one involved in this case.
The parties agree that the uses which respondents were making of their several properties when this suit was filed and which petitioner seeks to enjoin under the ordinance of May 4, 1948, are the same uses which were being made of such properties prior to the passage of petitioner's original ordinance on August 27, 1937, and that 'such uses of the property has been continued, uninterrupted and unextended since that time.'
Each respondent owns lots on Agnes Street, in Corpus Christi, on which he maintains an open-air storage yard and operates his business On the lots so used by him each respondent has a building which he uses as an office and for other purposes related to his business. The four businesses involved are close together in a comparatively small area on Agnes Street, at Nos. 2224, 2306, 2317 and 2523, respectively.
Under the ordinance in question, the area in which respondents have their businesses is designated as a light industrial district, whereas the ordinance prescribes that automobile salvage or wrecking yards shall be operated only in a heavy industrial district.
Therefore respondents' businesses became what is described in the ordinance as a 'non-conforming use.' The provisions of the ordinance relating to non-conforming use are Sections 1, 2 and 8, of Art. 21. They read as follows:
...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
Harbison v. City of Buffalo
...S.Ct. 16, 74 L.Ed. 612; see Robinson Brick Co. v. Luthi, 115 Colo. 106, 111-112, 169 P.2d 171, 166 A.L.R. 655; City of Corpus Christi v. Allen, 152 Tex. 137, 142, 254 S.W.2d 759; Stoner McCray System v. City of Des Moines, 247 Iowa 1313, 1320, 78 N.W.2d 843; United Adv. Corp. v. Borough of ......
-
City of Fayetteville v. S & H, Inc.
...389 S.W.2d 745 (Mo., 1965); McCaslin v. City of Monterey Park, 163 Cal.App.2d 339, 329 P.2d 522 (1958); City of Corpus Christi v. Allen, 152 Tex. 137, 254 S.W.2d 759 (1953); O'Connor v. City of Moscow, 69 Idaho 37, 202 P.2d 401, 9 A.L.R.2d 1031 (1949). See City of Little Rock v. Sun Buildin......
-
Lone v. Montgomery County
...(1953) (holding invalid an ordinance which prohibited the nonconforming use of a junk yard after one year); City of Corpus Christi v. Allen, 152 Tex. 137, 254 S.W.2d 759 (1953).In addition, we have reviewed amortization cases from several other jurisdictions. City of Los Angeles v. Gage, 12......
-
Murmur Corp. v. Board of Adjustment of City of Dallas
... ... Benners, 485 S.W.2d at 777-78; cf. City of Corpus Christi v. Allen, 152 Tex. 137, 254 S.W.2d 759, 761 (1953) (prohibition of automobile wrecking yard ... ...