Mayhew v. Town of Sunnyvale

• Decision Date: 09 June 1989
• Docket Number: No. 05-88-00734-CV,05-88-00734-CV
• Citation: 774 S.W.2d 284
• Parties: Charles MAYHEW, Sr., Charles Mayhew, Jr., The Estate of Audrey Mayhew, and Sunnyvale Properties, Ltd., Appellants, v. The TOWN OF SUNNYVALE, Eloise Patrick, Robert Sanders, Gordon Davis, and Carroll Brown, as Individuals, Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 284

774 S.W.2d 284

Charles MAYHEW, Sr., Charles Mayhew, Jr., The Estate of Audrey Mayhew, and Sunnyvale Properties, Ltd., Appellants, v. The TOWN OF SUNNYVALE, Eloise Patrick, Robert Sanders, Gordon Davis, and Carroll Brown, as Individuals, Appellees.

No. 05-88-00734-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Dallas.

June 9, 1989.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 9, 1989.

Robert D. Barbee, and Douglas A. Cawley, Johnson & Swanson, Dallas, Sarah C. Swanson, Larry Niemann, Niemann & Niemann, Austin, Charles L. Siemon, Andrew Stansell, Siemon, Larsen & Purdy, Chicago, Ill., for appellants.

N. Alex Bickley, Bickley & Associates, Robert F. Brown, Kenneth C. Dippel, Terrence S. Welch, Kent S. Hofmeister, Hutchison, Boyle, Brooks & Fisher, Dallas, for appellees.

Susan Mead, Thomas H. Keen, Dallas, for amicus curiae.

Before WHITHAM, LAGARDE and KINKEADE, JJ.

WHITHAM, Justice.

Denied a proposed planned development sought under the zoning ordinances of the appellee, The Town of Sunnyvale, the appellants, Charles Mayhew, Sr., Charles Mayhew, Jr., the Estate of Audrey Mayhew, and Sunnyvale Properties, Ltd. (Mayhew), brought this action against The Town of Sunnyvale and the additional individual appellees, Eloise Patrick, Robert Sanders, Gordon Davis, and Carroll Brown (the town), challenging the town's zoning ordinances on ten counts. Mayhew appeals from a summary judgment in favor of the town. Mayhew filed no motion for summary judgment. We conclude that the town's alleged violations of the Texas Zoning Enabling Act were cured by validation statutes. Insofar as the trial court's judgment denies Mayhew any relief for the town's violation of the Texas Zoning Enabling Act, we affirm the trial court's judgment. We conclude that the individual defendant-appellees, Eloise Patrick, Robert Sanders, Gordon Davis, and Carroll Brown are entitled to absolute immunity. Insofar as the trial court's judgment denies Mayhew any relief against the appellees, Eloise Patrick, Robert Sanders, Gordon Davis, and Carroll Brown, we affirm the trial court's judgment. We conclude that the trial court did not err in denying Mayhew's first motion to compel testimony from town councilman Robert Sanders. We conclude, therefore, that we need not reverse the trial court's judgment because of error in denying Mayhew's first motion to compel testimony from town councilman Robert Sanders. We conclude that the town, as defendant-movant for summary judgment has failed to establish as a matter of law that there is no genuine issue of material fact as to one or more of the essential elements of Mayhew's multiple causes of action grounded on federal and state constitutional claims. Insofar as the trial court's judgment denies Mayhew any relief against the Town of Sunnyvale on any of Mayhew's federal and state constitutional claims, we reverse the trial court's judgment and remand the cause for trial on the merits of Mayhew's federal and state constitutional claims. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part and remand the cause to the trial court for trial on the merits of Mayhew's federal and state constitutional claims.

The Genuine Issues of Material Fact Inquiry

The present case offers numerous complex and difficult questions for resolution. We do not attempt to discuss all of the asserted genuine issues of material fact briefed by the parties. However, there exists at least one genuine issue of material fact that we consider to be at the heart of this controversy. That fact issue is central to a principal inquiry of whether the town at this point has done anything to give rise to any of Mayhew's federal and state constitutional claims. As trial on the merits unfolds, we are confident that the trial court and the parties will better come to grips with any and all other disputed fact issues necessary to be determined by a fact finder. Certainly, this case illustrates the difficulty presented in attempting by way of summary judgment to dispose of complex and difficult lawsuits involving federal and state constitutional claims.

We begin by repeating well-known rules governing the summary judgment practice. The function of a summary judgment is not to deprive a litigant of his right to a full hearing on the merits of any real issue of fact, but to eliminate patently unmeritorious claims and untenable defenses. Gulbenkian v. Penn, 151 Tex. 412, 415-16, 252 S.W.2d 929, 931 (1952). The standards for reviewing a motion for summary judgment are well established. As mandated by the Supreme Court of Texas, they are as follows:

1. The movant for summary judgment has the burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

2. In deciding whether there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to the non-movant will be taken as true.

3. Every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the non-movant and any doubts resolved in its favor.

Nixon v. Mr. Property Management, 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985). It is not the purpose of the summary judgment rule to provide either a trial by deposition or a trial by affidavit, but rather to provide a method of summarily terminating a case when it clearly appears that only a question of law is involved and that there is no genuine issue of fact. Gaines v. Hamman, 163 Tex. 618, 626, 358 S.W.2d 557, 563 (1962). Moreover, when the defendant is the movant, as in the present case, we must be alert to additional rules controlling the summary judgment practice. The question on appeal, as well as in the trial court, is not whether the summary judgment proof raises fact issues with reference to the essential elements of a plaintiff's claim or cause of action, but is whether the summary judgment proof establishes as a matter of law that there is no genuine issue of facts as to one or more of the essential elements of the plaintiff's cause of action. Gibbs v. General Motors Corp., 450 S.W.2d 827, 828 (Tex.1970). Therefore, a defendant is entitled to a summary judgment if he establishes, as a matter of law, that at least one element of plaintiff's cause of action does not exist. See Rosas v. Buddies Food Store, 518 S.W.2d 534, 537 (Tex.1975). Furthermore, on a governmental body's motion for summary judgment the presumption of validity accorded governmental decisions cannot be used to affirmatively sustain the movant's burden. The presumptions and burden of proof for an ordinary or conventional trial are immaterial to the burden that a movant for summary judgment must bear. Missouri-Kansas-Texas R.R. v. City of Dallas, 623 S.W.2d 296, 298 (Tex.1981). The extraordinary burden resting upon a party challenging an action of a city council to show that the action was illegal and void is a burden for trial on the merits, not on a proceeding for summary judgment sought by the city. See Bliss v. City of Fort Worth, 288 S.W.2d 558, 563 (Tex.Civ.App.--Fort Worth 1956, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

With these principles in mind, we look to the summary-judgment proof for the background to the present controversy. Mayhew is the owner of approximately 1,200 acres of vacant land in the town. The property is regularly shaped and from a geotechnical perspective is suitable for suburban development. The town is a suburb of the City of Dallas situated between the cities of Garland and Mesquite, approximately twelve miles east of the central business district of the City of Dallas, and is accessible by Interstate 30 to the north and by Interstate 20 to the south. The town contains approximately 10,941 acres of land, of which approximately 8,190 is vacant. There are about 675 existing residences in the town and the majority of those residences are developed on lots of less than one acre. In 1965, the town adopted a comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance that provided for the future growth and development of the town. The 1965 plan and zoning ordinance provided for a variety of residential development types including multifamily residences and single family lot sizes as small as 12,000 square feet. In 1973, in response to a problem with septic tank failures in small lot subdivisions, the town amended its zoning ordinance to require a minimum lot size of one acre. Subsequently, sanitary sewer was made available to lands within the town, including Mayhew's property, obviating the need for larger lots to accommodate drainage fields. However, the one acre minimum lot requirement was not repealed. Nor was there any effort to amend the town's comprehensive plan to delete the multifamily forms of residential development and single family housing at densities of up to 3.5 dwelling units per acre from the town's official plan. As a result, all of Mayhew's property, although zoned in three separate zoning districts, is limited to single family residences with a minimum lot size requirement of one acre, even though the town's comprehensive plan provides for a variety of residential densities for Mayhew's property. In the twelve years since the one acre lot requirement had been in place, only 160 residences have been developed on one acre lots. More than 8,000 acres of vacant land in the town is subject to the town's one acre requirement.

In 1985, Mayhew inquired as to whether the town would consider a planned development under article XV of the town's zoning ordinance, which purported to allow more intensive residential development for well-planned developments. Article XV provides in part:

I. INTENT and PURPOSE. The intent of the Planned Development District (PD) is to provide a flexible, alternative zoning procedure to encourage imagination and innovative design for the unified development of large tracts of land, within overall use regulations set forth in this ordinance, the general land use plan, the thoroughfare plan, and the goals and policies of the development of the Town.

The PD District is designed to allow the planned association of different land...