City of Mansfield v. Savering

• Decision Date: 16 July 2020
• Docket Number: No. 02-19-00174-CV,02-19-00174-CV
• Parties: CITY OF MANSFIELD AND THE MANSFIELD PARK FACILITIES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Appellants v. JOSH AND KELLI SAVERING, CHATTANYA CHAVDA, PANNABEN NANCHA, PAUL ARSENEAU, ALLISON BLACKSTEIN, AND JACK A. MUHLBEIER, Appellees
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

CITY OF MANSFIELD AND THEMANSFIELD PARK FACILITIES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Appellants v. JOSH AND KELLI SAVERING, CHATTANYA CHAVDA,PANNABEN NANCHA, PAUL ARSENEAU, ALLISON BLACKSTEIN,AND JACK A. MUHLBEIER, Appellees

No. 02-19-00174-CV

Court of Appeals Second Appellate District of Texas at Fort Worth

July 16, 2020

On Appeal from the 348th District Court Tarrant County, Texas

Trial Court No. 348-270155-14

Before Sudderth, C.J.; Gabriel and Kerr, JJ.

Memorandum Opinion by Justice Gabriel MEMORANDUM OPINION

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether several homeowners were entitled to a declaratory judgment regarding fee-simple title to undeveloped lots in the homeowners' housing development and regarding compliance with a floodplain ordinance. Our decision regarding fee-simple title is complicated by this court's prior en banc opinion that held, in the context of the homeowners' request for a preliminary injunction, that the homeowners had shown a probable right to relief on their trespass claim. But we are not precluded from again considering fee-simple title based on different claims, new arguments, an expanded record, and different governing standards presented in this appeal. As such, even if title passed to the original homeowners' association under the terms of the dedicatory instrument (the subject of our prior preliminary-injunction opinion), there is no evidence that the original homeowners' association conveyed title to the subsequent homeowners' association, which was formed after the original homeowners' association became a terminated entity. Additionally, the homeowners do not have standing to seek to enforce the floodplain ordinance through a claim for declaratory relief and, in any event, have failed to conclusively establish noncompliance. We conclude that the homeowners did not conclusively establish their right to declaratory relief and, therefore, that the trial court erred by granting their summary-judgment motion.

I. BACKGROUND

Although we have recounted some of the facts surrounding this property dispute in our prior opinions, the record has been further developed since the temporary-injunction fight. Thus, in the interest of clarity and completeness, we find it necessary to once again recount the underlying facts, including those facts developed for the summary-judgment proceeding, and the parties' positions in the trial court.

A. THE DOCUMENTS

In 1994, the Arbors of Creekwood Partners Joint Venture Phase II (the Developer) filed a final plat in Tarrant County, creating a planned housing development—The Arbors of Creekwood - Gated Community (the Development)—on a tract of land located in appellant City of Mansfield. The northern and western borders of the Development (more specifically, Lots 52 through 54 and Lots 57 through 71) abut Walnut Creek. The southern and eastern borders are gated, restricting public access into the development.

On November 6, 1995, the Developer filed in Tarrant County a plat revision, which had been approved by the City in September 1995,¹ that divided the lots into either "R1" or "R2" lots. Lots 52 through 54 and Lots 57 through 71—the lotsabutting Walnut Creek—were designated as R2 lots. All R2 lots are in the floodplain. The revised plat also showed a lake that the Developer had constructed on portions of Lots 64-R1 through 71-R1 and a jogging path that the Developer had placed on the R2 lots to the west and north of the lake. Residents of the Development could access the path via a sidewalk between two homes that "ties into the rest of the walking path." McCaslin stated that he had "deliberately connected" the path to a public access point "outside of the gated portion of the subdivision" because the path "was intended to be for public use." The boundary line for the R2 lots abutting the lake was to the north of the lake; thus, the lake was not included within the boundaries of these R2 lots. The lake and the jogging path are also located in the floodplain.

McCaslin had instructed his surveyor that the revised plat "should carry a restriction reserving the R2 lots for public, recreational uses." This purpose is reflected on the face of the revised plat in the "CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL," which also address the formation of a homeowners' association and the lot owners' responsibilities for private common areas and facilities:

1. Lots 52-R2 through 54-R2 [and] Lots 57-R2 through 71-R2, Block 5 shown [on the revised plat] are intended for public recreation use and shall not be converted to other uses. No building permits will be issued for any of said lots unless it is for construction related to public recreation use.

2. The landowners and any subsequent owners of lots shown [on the revised plat] (the "Lot Owners"), jointly and severally, shall be responsible and liable for the construction, operation and maintenance of any private common areas or facilities in the addition created [in the revised plat] (the "Addition"), including but not limited to privatestreets, private street lights, private entrance gates or structures, private walls and fences, private pedestrian access, private storm drain and systems, private lake, private open space and landscaping, and emergency access.

3. A Homeowners Association (the "HOA") shall be established by the subdivider or developer to operate and/or maintain the aforementioned private common areas or facilities.

On December 6, 1995, McCaslin, as the managing partner of the Developer, executed a declaration of covenants, conditions, and restrictions (the Declaration) for the Development. The Declaration was indexed in Tarrant County's property records on December 11, 1995, which became the Declaration's effective date under the Declaration's express terms. The Declaration reflected that McCaslin was "the owner of all that certain real property situated in . . . Mansfield . . ., as more particularly described on Exhibit 'A' attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference for all purposes (the 'Property')." The Property was described on Exhibit A as

Lots 48, 49, 50, and 51, 52-R1 through 54-R1, 55, 56-R1 through 71-R1, Block 5, Lots 10 through 27, Block 6 of Arbors of Creekwood Phase Two and Five,² Arbors of Creekwood, an addition to the City of Mansfield, Tarrant County, Texas, according to the Plats recorded [in] Tarrant County, Texas and any additional lots and blocks so designated as the [Development] in the future by proper plat dedication.

In short, the R2 lots were not included in the definition of the Property.

The Developer also declared that it intended to create a nonprofit, incorporated homeowners' association "to have and to exercise the rights and duties, and to perform on behalf of, and as agent for, the Owners," who were defined asrecord owners of a fee or undivided fee interest in any lot in the Development. Membership in the association, once created, would be mandatory based on the fact that the Development contained private streets.

The Declaration provided that this future homeowners' association would hold fee-simple title to the private streets in the Development "and [to] all other Common Properties, and all portions of the Property which are not within any of the Lots as shown on the Plat, all of which have been or will be dedicated to the Association as shown on and pursuant to, the Plat." "Common Properties" had a six-part definition in the Declaration, only two of which are relevant here:

(ii) Any and all greenbelt areas, bicycle and/or jogging paths, landscape easements, floodways, creeks, drainage ways, open spaces, pedestrian access easement or other similar areas as shown on the Plat . . . of the [Development], whether within or surrounding or along the boundaries of the Property, including portions thereof lying within or beneath a portion of the Lake, along its North boundary between the jogging path and the water's edge, a distance of 5' into the water.

(iii) Any other property or improvements for which [the Developer] and/or the Association have or may hereafter become obligated to maintain, to improve, or to preserve[.]

The future HOA would be responsible for maintaining the Common Properties as defined in the Declaration, including "any creeks, flood plains, lake, drainage ways and/or common amenities located within or upon the Common Properties."

On December 15, 1995, articles of incorporation were filed with the Texas Secretary of State creating the "Arbors of Creekwood - Gated Community Homeowners Association, Inc." (the Arbors HOA) to "define and enforce the[Declaration] of the [Development] in Mansfield, Tarrant County, Texas, and carry out the duties authorized therein." The management of the Arbors HOA was vested in its board of directors, of which McCaslin was the only member. The articles provided that upon "dissolution, [the Arbors HOA's] assets will be distributed to the state government for a public purpose, or to an organization exempt from taxes under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) to be used to accomplish the general purposes for which the Corporation was organized." The articles further provided that property could not be distributed in a contrary way upon dissolution.

On December 22, 1995, McCaslin, acting as the Developer's managing partner, executed a warranty deed donating and granting to the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. (the Foundation) Lots 57-R2 through 70-R2 "subject to any and all restrictions, covenants, conditions and easements, if any." But, again, the warranty deed specified that any use of the deeded lots was "restricted to be used only for purposes of parks and recreation." The deed was indexed in the Tarrant County property records on January 23, 1996.

In 1997, the Arbors HOA forfeited its right to do business and became a terminated entity. See Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code Ann. § 11.001(4). On May 22, 1998, articles of incorporation were filed creating the "Estates of Creekwood Homeowners Association, Inc." (the Estates HOA) for "promoting the...