Couch v. City of Fort Worth, 15684

• Decision Date: 20 January 1956
• Docket Number: No. 15684,15684
• Citation: 287 S.W.2d 255
• Parties: J. T. COUCH et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF FORT WORTH, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 255

287 S.W.2d 255

J. T. COUCH et al., Appellants, v. CITY OF FORT WORTH, Appellee.

No. 15684.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

Jan. 20, 1956.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 17, 1956.

George Gleeson and Clyde & Barnes and Al Clyde, Fort Worth, for appellants.

R. E. Rouer, S. G. Johndroe, Jr., Robert R. Goodrich, G. Gordon Whitman, Earl C. Morgan, and John Gano, Fort Worth, for appellee.

RENFRO, Justice.

On the morning of February 21, 1955, the City Council of the City of Fort Worth passed, on first reading, ordinance No. 3309 annexing certain territory adjacent to the southeast boundaries of said City. On March 4, 1955, certain residents of the involved territory petitioned the County Judge to order an election for incorporation of the Town of Lake City. An election was ordered and on March 26, 1955, a majority voted for incorporation. The territory included within the boundaries of the area of land sought to be incorporated as the Town of Lake City was included within the boundaries of the area described in ordinance No. 3309 except a small tract across U. S. Highway No. 287.

The city of Fort Worth brought suit on March 29, 1955, in a district court of Tarrant County, requesting the court to declare and establish the validity and precedence of the action of the City Council of Fort Worth in passing ordinance No. 3309, and to remove any cloud or question raised by the incorporation election of March 26, 1955.

Named as defendants were J. T. Couch and others, individually and as a class, who had petitioned the County Judge for previous elections to be hereinafter mentioned.

The County Judge of Tarrant County, the State of Texas, and William G. Hemme, Mayor of the dissolved Town of Lake City, were also made defendants. All disclaimed and were dismissed from the suit.

Trial to the court without a jury resulted in a judgment declaring ordinance No. 3309 valid; that it established a primary annexation and priority jurisdiction in the City of Fort Worth, a Home Rule municipal corporation, of and over the land involved, and that the incorporation election of March 26, 1955, was illegal, invalid and void.

The appellants contend ordinance No. 3309 was ineffective because a prior incorporation of the Town of Lake City was still in existence at the time of the passage of said ordinance.

Appellants filed with the County Judge on October 14, 1954, a petition for an election for incorporation of an area in Tarrant County to be called Town of Lake City. An election was held on October 30, 1954, and the incorporation move was defeated.

Thereafter, on November 12, 1954, appellants again petitioned the County Judge to order an election for incorporation of Town of Lake City. The election was held on November 27, 1954, and resulted in a majority vote for incorporation.

On February 8, 1955, certain voters of Town of Lake City petitioned the County Judge to order an election for the abolishment of Town of Lake City. The election was held on February 19, 1955, and resulted in a vote for abolishment of the municipality. The Courty Judge on the afternoon of February 21, 1955, signed an order certifying the dissolution of Town of Lake City.

The territory included within the boundaries of the area described in the November 27th election was entirely included within the area described in the October election. Only a few small isolated lots or tracts included in the October election were omitted from the November election.

The petitions in the October and November elections sought to incorporate under the provisions of Article 1134, V.T.C.S. The last sentence of Article 1134 reads: 'A new election shall not be ordered in less than one year.' The Supreme Court in Polk v. Vance, 150 Tex. 586, 243 S.W.2d 829, held that the provision against another election within a year applies to elections to incorporation but is not applicable to elections to abolish a corporate existence. So, if the territory included in the November election was the same territory, or substantially the same, as that included in the October election, the November election of incorporation was invalid for it was held within less than a year of the October election, at which incorporation had been defeated. It is only when a material change is made in the boundries that a new election can be ordered in less than a year without contravening the statute. Rachford v. City of Port Neches, Tex.Civ.App., 46 S.W.2d 1057.

Since the case was tried before the court, any doubt as to the facts raised by the evidence and any view of the law which the court could have applied under the pleadings and the evidence will be resolved in support of the judgment. 3-B Tex.Jur., p. 378, sec. 913.

A careful study of all the evidence, admissions and plats introduced by both parties convinces us that the record supports the implied finding of the trial court that the November incorporation election was void as being in violation of the statute prohibiting another incorporation election within less than a year after incorporation had been defeated. The same proposed name, 'Town of Lake City', was used in both. The appellants were petitioners in both. No new territory was added in the November boundary description. The only...