City of San Antonio v. Bexar Metropolitan Water Dist.

• Citation: 309 S.W.2d 491
• Decision Date: 22 January 1958
• Docket Number: No. 13304,13304
• Parties: CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Appellant, v. BEXAR METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 491

309 S.W.2d 491

CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Appellant, v. BEXAR METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT, Appellee.

No. 13304.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, San Antonio.

Jan. 22, 1958.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 12, 1958.

Carlos C. Cadena, City Atty, A. W. Worthy, Jr., Asst. City Atty., San Antonio, for appellant.

Arley V. Knight, San Antonio, for appellee.

W. O. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

This suit was instituted by the City of San Antonio, hereinafter referred to as City, against Bexar Metropolitan Water District, hereinafter referred to as District, both municipal corporations, seeking a declaratory determination of the question of whether the City can require the District, at its expense, to conform its water mains in the City streets to improvements in such streets made by the City.

The trial court held that the District could be required to so conform its mains but that the City must pay the cost thereof, from which judgment the City has appealed. Appellant contends that the trial court erred in holding that it must pay such costs.

The facts are undisputed. The District was created by a special legislative act in 1945. Since 1945 a major part of the area served by the District has been annexed and is now within the corporate limits of the City. The City is engaged in a street improvement program which includes street under which the District has placed some of its mains and other water lines. Some of the District's lines require lowering or other modification, to conform to the street improvements of the City. The City requested that the District make these changes, to which the District agreed, but only if the City would reimburse it for the costs.

The main purposes of roads and streets are for travel and transportation, and while public utilities may use such roads and streets for the laying of their telegraph, telephone and water lines, and for other purposes, such uses are subservient to the main uses and purposes of such roads and streets.

The City of San Antonio, by statute and by the provisions of its charter, has control of its streets and can regulate their use by utility companies or anyone else. Art. 1175, Secs. 12 and 16, Vernon's Ann.Civ.Stats; City Charter of the City of San Antonio, Sec. 3, paragraphs 7 and 8, Sec. 29, Sec. 128, Sec. 134, paragraph 9; Consolidated Water Co. v. City of Talco, Tex.Civ.App., 116 S.W.2d 411.

It is true that at the time the District laid its water lines in the public thoroughfares they were not within the limits of the City of San Antonio, but the City has now extended its limits to include these thoroughfares. The District was charged with the knowledge that if it saw fit to lay its lines in public roads, it did so subject to reasonable regulation by either the County or the City, as the case might be. The District was bound to...