City of Pasadena v. State ex rel. City of Houston

• Decision Date: 09 November 1967
• Docket Number: No. 15048,15048
• Citation: 428 S.W.2d 388
• Parties: CITY OF PASADENA, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas ex rel. CITY OF HOUSTON et al., Appellees. . Houston (1st Dist.)
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 388

428 S.W.2d 388

CITY OF PASADENA, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas ex rel. CITY OF HOUSTON et al., Appellees.

No. 15048.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas Houston (1st Dist.).

Nov. 9, 1967.

Rehearing Denied May 9, 1968.

Second Rehearing Denied May 31, 1968.

Charles A. Easterling, Houston, James R. Riggs, Pasadena, for appellant.

Joe G. Resweber, County Atty., Billy R. Kerr, First Asst. County Atty., Will Sears, Houston, for appellee City of Houston.

Frank L. Heard, Houston, for appellees Humble Oil & Refining Co., Friendswood Development Co. and Red Bluff Development Co.

BELL, Chief Justice.

This is a case in which the trial court sustained a motion for summary judgment in favor of the State of Texas holding certain ordinances of the City of Pasadena invalid and ousting it from the territory described in said ordinances. The same judgment held valid certain ordinances of the City of Houston which had been attacked by the City of Pasadena in its answer to the quo warranto proceeding instituted by the State, and held that the territory described in such ordinance was validity within the limits of the City of Houston.

This appeal grew out of a quo warranto proceeding filed by the State of Texas on the relation of the City of Houston October 14, 1965 in the 61st District Court of Harris County, being Cause No. 684,547. The petition was subsequently amended, in which additional relators were named, and trial was had on the amended petition. We notice the number of the present suit because prior to June, 1962 two other suits had been filed and disposed of between Pasadena and Houston that will be discussed because they involved some of the ordinances of both cities that we will refer to in our opinion, and the judgments rendered in those causes are material to the disposition of this appeal.

The first of the prior suits was a quo warranto proceeding instituted by the State, on the relation of the City of Houston et al. against the City of Pasadena in the 55th District Court and was numbered 571,595. The second was instituted by the State on relation of the City of Pasadena against the City of Houston in the 129th District Court and was numbered 594,632. Judgments were rendered in both of these causes on June 22, 1962, upon the agreement of the parties thereto.

Because of the lengthy description in the ordinances and judgments involved, we are making a diagram a part hereof to demonstrate the areas encompassed in the various ordinances and judgments.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

The following are the material ordinances passed in 1960 that were involved in Causes Nos. 571,595 and 594,632, in which agreed judgments were rendered on June 22, 1962:

1. On June 6, 1960, Pasadena passed on first reading Ordinance No . 1449 and passed it on second and final reading December 27, 1960. The ordinance described the territory shown on the diagram by parallel lines running northeast-southwest and lying north of Genoa-Red Bluff Road. We have placed in this area the number '1449' and the name 'Pasadena'. Proceeding from the southwest corner of this tract it gave calls running generally southwest to a point on our diagram that we have marked with the letter 'A'. The calls proceed to A, following substantially the path we have at intervals marked 1449 along the lower part of the shaded or closely dotted area. The long meandering line continues from point A substantially along the line marked B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I. The point I would represent the southeast corner we have designated with the parallel lines. This long meandering line would be the west, south and east boundary of the area purported to be annexed to Pasadena by Ordinance 1449, that lies south of the north line of Genoa-Red Bluff Road.

2. On June 22, 1960, the City of Houston passed on first reading Ordinance No. 60-989, annexing all territory lying in Harris County not already in the City of Houston or not validly incorporated in some other city.

After Ordinance 1449 was passed on second and final reading in December, 1960, the State of Texas, on the relation of the City of Houston and numerous individuals, filed a quo warranto proceeding in the 55th District Court of Harris County, against the City of Pasadena and the City of La Porte, it being numbered 571,595. The suit sought to oust Pasadena from certain extensive territory covered by Ordinance 1449 that had by earlier City of Houston ordinances become a part of Houston. The validity of the ordinance was also attacked because of defective description. While the City of La Porte was a respondent, the adjudication in the case as to La Porte is not material to the disposition of this controversy. The petition specifically put in issue the validity of Pasadena Ordinance No. 1449 and Houston Ordinance No. 60--989. Other Houston ordinances were alleged as having been passed several years earlier preempting territory by Houston and that part of such territory was entrenched upon by Pasadena Ordinance 1449, for which additional reason the latter ordinance was invalid. We need not specifically notice them, but mention them generally only to show that there were various issues between the parties which created uncertainty of the outcome of the suit as made by the petition in Cause No. 571,595 and Pasadena's answer thereto which probably led to the agreed judgment of June 22, 1962. Houston was asserting the validity of Ordinance No. 60-989 and claiming it had by such ordinance preempted the territory involved in this case. In its answer to the petition in Cause No. 571,595, Pasadena attacked various ordinances passed by Houston and specifically attacked the validity of No. 60-989 that encompassed the territory involved in this case.

On May 18, 1962, the State of Texas, on relation of the City of Pasadena and the City of La Porte, was granted leave to file a quo warranto proceeding against the City of Houston. It was filed in the 61st District Court and was numbered 594,632. This petition attacked the validity of various Houston annexing ordinances, including No. 60-989. This was really a countersuit, though not in form a counterclaim or cross-action to Cause No. 571,595. It asserted entrenchment upon territory previously annexed by Pasadena. In the prayer it asked specifically for a declaration of the invalidity of Ordinance No. 60-989.

On June 19, 1962, the City of Pasadena passed Ordinance No. 1530 expressly authorizing the rendition and entry of the judgments that were finally rendered and entered in Causes Nos. 571,595 and 594,632. On June 20, 1962, by Ordinance No. 62-886, the City of Houston gave the same authority to its counsel.

On June 22, 1962, in Cause No. 571,595, final judgment was rendered and entered in the 55th District Court. This judgment made these significant adjudications:

1. That Pasadena was ousted from any jurisdiction or assumed jurisdiction over all territory described in Ordinance 1449 except the territory described in paragraph I of the judgment. The described area held to be lawfully annexed by Pasadena is substantially that lying north of the north line of Genoa-Red Bluff Road and represented on our diagram by the area marked 'Pasadena' and also shown by diagonally drawn parallel lines. The description fixes the north line of Genoa-Red Bluff Road as the south city limit of Pasadena.

2. Ordinance 60-989 of the City of Houston, passed and adopted on first reading June 22, 1960, was expressly declared to have been validly introduced and passed on such date and that Houston thereby validly extended, claimed to extend, and at the time of judgment still claimed annexation jurisdiction over all territory in Harris County not therefore in the City of Houston or not theretofore validly contained in some other city, town or village. It was adjudicated that by virtue of such annexation jurisdiction established in the City of Houston by Ordinance 60-989 all of the territory described in Pasadena Ordinance No. 1449, except that described immediately above in adjudication I, was validly preempted and claimed by Houston on June 22, 1960, and had been since that time and was at the time of judgment within the exclusive annexation jurisdiction of Houston.

3. There were other adjudications as to certain other territory covered by other ordinances that determined disputes between Houston and Pasadena, but they are not material to a decision of any issue before us in this case.

On June 22, 1962, in Cause No. 594,632, judgment was rendered and entered by the 129th District Court. This was the counter quo warranto suit filed by the State on the relation of Pasadena and La Porte in which they became movants against Houston and in which they affirmatively attacked, among other ordinances, Houston Ordinance 60-989 and sought to establish the validity of Pasadena Ordinance 1449. This judgment determined that the issues in the case had been finally adjudicated in Cause No. 571,595 and thus the cause had become moot. It declared that because of the other judgment there was no justiciable controversy between the parties as to the issues set out in the petition and information. These judgments became final and have in no way been changed.

Tranquility seems to have prevailed until December 5, 1962. On this date the City of Houston passed on first reading Ordinance 62-1766 which began annexation of a ten foot strip of land to the south of Pasadena. The north segment of the ten foot strip had for its north line the north line of Genoa-Red Bluff Road which was the south line of Pasadena as fixed by court judgment as above noted. The 10 foot strip is shown on our diagram beginning at Point A where it connected with land indisputably within the limits of the City of Houston. It proceeds from Point A between parallel lines, as shown on our diagram, substantially along the devious route marked at intervals by the City of Houston Ordinance 62-1766 and the letters...