Hachar v. Webb County
| Decision Date | 15 March 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 15964,15964 |
| Citation | 563 S.W.2d 693 |
| Parties | George L. HACHAR et al., Appellants, v. COUNTY OF WEBB, Texas, et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Lawrence A. Mann, Mann, Cronfel, Dickinson & Saldana, Nat B. King, Laredo, for appellants.
Harvey L. Hardy, San Antonio, for appellees.
George L. Hachar and others, residents and taxpayers of Webb County, Texas, brought this suit for injunction against Webb County, Texas, to prevent the removal of the county courthouse of Webb County to a site outside the county seat of Webb County without an election, as required by Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 1596 (1962). This is an appeal from a judgment rendered by the court below granting a plea to the jurisdiction which had been filed by the defendants, dismissing this suit at plaintiffs' cost.
The only issue before this Court is whether the trial court committed error by granting defendants' plea to the jurisdiction. Jurisdiction, at a hearing on the plea to the jurisdiction, is properly determined solely by the allegations in the plaintiffs' pleading, and these allegations are taken as true. Brannon v. Pacific Employers Ins. Co., 148 Tex. 289, 224 S.W.2d 466 (1949).
Plaintiffs, in their petition, have alleged that they are taxpayers of Webb County and that the Commissioners Court of Webb County has purchased land outside of the county seat for the purpose of constructing a new county courthouse and, by resolution, has decided to build the county courthouse on this land. Plaintiffs further allege that such act on the part of the Commissioners Court is illegal in that it is in violation of Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 1603 (1962), which requires that the courthouse be located at the county seat. As this is an appeal from an order sustaining the defendants' plea to the jurisdiction, we must assume that the above facts are true.
We have examined defendants' pleadings and it appears that they base their plea to the jurisdiction on the ground that plaintiffs' petition shows on its face that it is an attempt by plaintiffs to contest the legal right of Commissioners Court to provide for the location and construction of a new courthouse for Webb County. We agree with defendants that plaintiffs have no standing to bring suit for injunction to enjoin the Commissioners Court from doing an act that they have a legal right to do. However, it is the case alleged, and not such case as the evidence may show to be actually existent upon which the question of jurisdiction arises in this suit. Jones v. Maples, 184 S.W.2d 844 (Tex.Civ.App. Eastland 1944, writ ref'd).
The cases cited by defendants are not in point in that they all involve an attempt to enjoin a local legislative body from performing a legal act.
Worsham v. Richards, 46 Tex. 441 (Tex.1877) was a suit by a local taxpayer to enjoin the county from changing the county seat by lawful means. We agree with the Supreme...
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...aff'd, 507 S.W.2d 526 (Tex.1974). We take the allegations in the Pozeros' pleading as true. Hachar v. County of Webb, 563 S.W.2d 693, 694 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1978, writ ref'd n.r.e.). The Pozeros' causes of action are plead in the language of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. ......
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...a taxpayer it has a right to bring this suit to enjoin the illegal expenditure of public funds. Hachar v. County of Webb, 563 S.W.2d 693 (Tex.Civ.App. San Antonio 1978, writ ref'd n. r. e.). We disagree with appellant that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the temporary Appel......
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Rodriguez v. American General Fire & Cas. Co.
...that the court erred by not finding jurisdiction based solely upon his pleadings, citing Hachar v. County of Webb, 563 S.W.2d 693, 694 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1978, writ ref'd n.r.e.). An examination of the petition and the attached exhibits show on their face that Appellant had not comp......
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Perry v. Texas A & I University
...of the plaintiff's petition, Brannon v. Pacific Employers Insurance Co., 224 S.W.2d 466 (Tex.1949); Hachar v. Webb, 563 S.W.2d 693 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1978, writ ref'd n.r.e.), where there are no allegations in the petition that could be construed as claiming that a vested property r......