Hammonds v. City of Corpus Christi, Texas, Civ. A. No. 64-C-2.

• Decision Date: 07 February 1964
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 64-C-2.
• Citation: 226 F. Supp. 456
• Parties: Wesley HAMMONDS et al. v. CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas

226 F. Supp. 456

Wesley HAMMONDS et al. v. CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS.

Civ. A. No. 64-C-2.

United States District Court S. D. Texas, Corpus Christi Division.

February 7, 1964.

Sidney P. Chandler, Corpus Christi, Tex., for plaintiffs.

I. M. Singer, Corpus Christi, Tex., for defendant.

GARZA, District Judge.

In this cause the Plaintiffs are suing the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, as Defendant, asking that two annexation ordinances of the Defendant be held void, and asking for an injunction against said City from asserting any control over the alleged annexed territory, including, but not limited to, its attempt to collect taxes.

It appears that Plaintiffs are not only bringing this action in behalf of themselves, but also in behalf of all other persons similarly situated.

Plaintiffs assert that this Court has jurisdiction of their cause of action under Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and Title 42, Section 1981, United States Code Annotated.

The City of Corpus Christi has filed its motion to dismiss this action, and that is the motion that is before the Court at this time.

The City of Corpus Christi is a home rule city and operates under a city charter under Article 11, Section 5, of the Constitution of the State of Texas, Vernon's Ann. St.

A city of over 5,000 inhabitants, such as Corpus Christi, Texas, has the power to adopt or amend its charter subject to such limitations as may be prescribed by the Legislature. Among the enumerated powers granted to such home rule cities by the Legislature is "the power to fix the boundary limits of said city, to provide for the extension of said boundary limits and the annexation of additional territory lying adjacent to said city, * * * according to such rules as may be provided by said charter." Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes, Art. 1175, subd. 2.

Texas courts have held that the only limitation fixed by the Legislature on the power of a home rule city to annex additional territory is that the territory shall be adjacent to the city and not included within the boundaries of any other municipality. City of Houston v. State ex rel. City of West University Place, 142 Tex. 190, 176 S.W.2d 928; State ex rel. Pan American Production Co. v. Texas City, 157 Tex. 450, 303 S. W.2d 780 (1957), Reh. den.

The City of Corpus Christi has provided the different modes of annexing territory to the city, in Article 1, Sec. 2, of its city charter.¹

Acting under said city charter provisions, the City of Corpus Christi passed two annexation ordinances which are the ones under attack here. These two ordinances have already been under attack in the State courts, and the validity of said annexation ordinances has been upheld.

The cases in which the validity of said ordinances was attacked by the same attorney representing the Plaintiffs here were the cases of Pennington et al. v. City of Corpus Christi, Tex.Civ.App., 363 S.W.2d 502, and W.L.D. Winship et al. v. City of Corpus Christi Case No. 15 of the Court of Civil Appeals for the Thirteenth Judicial District of Texas), 373 S.W.2d 844, decided December 19, 1963; motion for rehearing overruled January 9, 1964.

The Pennington case was decided by the Court of Civil Appeals, Fourth Supreme Judicial District of Texas, at San Antonio, Texas. Petition for writ of error was refused by the Supreme Court of Texas, and motion for rehearing denied. The plaintiffs in that case appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Supreme Court of the United States, in Cause No. 621, decided January 13, 1964, dismissed the appeal for want of jurisdiction.

Exactly the same points attacking the validity of the annexation ordinances in the Pennington and Winship cases, are being raised in the present cause.

Plaintiffs claim that for the first time they are raising the question of the constitutionality of the city charter of the City of Corpus Christi relating to annexation.

Reading the opinion in the Winship case, it can be seen that the plaintiffs in that case made the contention that the annexations amounted to a taking of their property without due process of law, in violation of the Constitutions of the State of Texas and the United States, and were void. Certainly the validity of the city charter provisions of the City of Corpus Christi regarding annexation were under attack at that time.

Be that as it may, a home rule city, such as Corpus Christi, may provide in its charter for any form of annexation, as noted above.

The annexation of lands to a city or town has been held without exception to be purely a political matter, entirely within the power of the Legislature of the State to regulate.

In Hunter v. Pittsburgh, 207 U.S. 161, at pp. 178-179, 28 S.Ct. 40, at pp. 46-47, 52 L.Ed. 151, the Supreme Court of the United States said:

"Municipal corporations are political subdivisions of the State, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the governmental powers of the State as may be entrusted to them. For the purpose of executing these powers properly and efficiently they usually are given the power to acquire, hold, and manage personal and real property. The number, nature and duration of the powers conferred upon these corporations and the territory over which they shall be exercised rests in the absolute discretion of the State. Neither their charters, nor any law conferring governmental powers, or vesting in them property to be used for governmental purposes, or authorizing them to hold

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