Nw. Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Carroll Indep. Sch. Dist.

• Decision Date: 19 June 2014
• Docket Number: No. 02–10–00105–CV.,02–10–00105–CV.
• Citation: 441 S.W.3d 684
• Parties: NORTHWEST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant v. CARROLL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

441 S.W.3d 684

NORTHWEST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant

v.CARROLL INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee.

No. 02–10–00105–CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

June 19, 2014.

Richard M. Abernathy, Charles J. Crawford, Abernathy Roeder Boyd & Joplin, P.C., McKinney, for Appellant.

Frank Gilstrap, Hill Gilstrap, PC, Arlington, for Appellee.

Before the court en banc.

OPINION ON APPELLEE'S MOTION FOR EN BANC RECONSIDERATION

TERRIE LIVINGSTON, Chief Justice.

After considering Carroll Independent School District's motion for en banc reconsideration and appellant Northwest Independent School District's response, we grant the motion. We withdraw our prior opinion of February 16, 2012 and substitute the following.

Background

Carroll Independent School District (CISD) sued Northwest Independent School District (NWISD) alleging a boundary dispute with NWISD. The parties disagreed over the location of the boundary line between the two districts when other litigation between their relative counties was resolved. See Tarrant Cnty. v. Denton Cnty., 87 S.W.3d 159 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2002, pet. denied) (op. on reh'g), disapproved on other grounds by Martin v. Amerman, 133 S.W.3d 262 (Tex.2004). As a result of that litigation, the two counties' boundary line was definitively marked on the ground to reflect the counties' previous agreements; this resulted in the school districts' long-honored boundary line—since 1959¹ —being somewhat south of the counties' previously-agreed boundary line. Id. at 179–80 ; Carroll ISD v. Nw. ISD, 245 S.W.3d 620, 622–23 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2008, pet. denied). Thus, CISD claimed the school districts' line should move with the counties' line because the districts' line had been tied to the Tarrant–Denton boundary line.² Carroll ISD, 245 S.W.3d at 623. This would have expanded CISD's district into NWISD's territory, an area we will call the Disputed Area as the parties have in some of their briefing to this court. See id. In an effort to protect itself, NWISD filed the long-existing districts' boundary line metes and bounds description with the Texas Education Agency in accordance with the Texas Education Code. See Tex. Educ.Code Ann. § 13.010 (West 2012). CISD filed suit against NWISD in March 2005 claiming jurisdiction over the Disputed Area via trespass to try title and declaratory judgment actions. Carroll ISD, 245 S.W.3d at 623.

Shortly thereafter, NWISD filed a motion to dismiss CISD's suit for want of jurisdiction, which the trial court granted. Id. The trial court based its decision primarily on its conclusion that the dispute between the two districts was a boundary dispute that should first be determined by the “appropriate authority or authorities as required by the Texas Education Code” and that jurisdiction did not lie in the district court until the parties had first pursued their administrative remedies. Id.

CISD filed an interlocutory appeal challenging the dismissal of its claims against NWISD, and our court issued an opinion reversing the trial court's decision to dismiss and remanding the case to the trial court. Id. at 626. In that opinion, we specifically held that the Texas Education Code did not apply because one district was not seeking to actually detach or annex additional property into its district, which would have required TEA oversight, but was instead seeking a judicial declaration of the “parties' rights, interests, and obligations” as to the Disputed Area and the location of its boundary, which could be appropriately resolved through a declaratory judgment action. Id. at 625–26.

In our opinion, we also held that CISD is a “person” for purposes of the Declaratory Judgments Act and that dismissal for lack of jurisdiction on that ground was improper. Id. at 625; see Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 37.001, 37.004(a), (c) (West 2008). Furthermore, we addressed NWISD's attack on the trial court's jurisdiction based on its theory that the validity of annexation of territory can only be determined by a quo warranto proceeding. We disagreed with this basis for the jurisdictional plea as well, noting that the two school districts were merely in a boundary dispute, not attempting to annex additional territory. Carroll ISD, 245 S.W.3d at 626.

Upon remand, after the parties had conducted further discovery of the jurisdictional facts and filed amended pleadings, NWISD filed an additional plea to the jurisdiction seeking dismissal, which the trial court denied. NWISD also filed a motion for summary judgment, which the trial court granted as to CISD's claims for loss of tax revenue and for trespass to try title. After NWISD filed its second plea to the jurisdiction and motion for summary judgment, CISD further amended its petition to assert additional grounds for relief, which required NWISD to file a supplemental second plea to the jurisdiction that the trial court also denied. Thus, in this interlocutory appeal, NWISD is the appealing party and is challenging the trial court's denial of its supplemental plea to the jurisdiction.

Does the Law of the Case Doctrine Apply?

In two of its three issues, NWISD challenges two legal conclusions already decided by this court in the first interlocutory appeal brought by CISD: that the trial court did not lack jurisdiction (1) because CISD was not required to follow the Texas Education Code's administrative procedure for detaching and annexing property inasmuch as it is not seeking to detach and annex property and (2) because CISD is included in the definition of “person” in the Declaratory Judgments Act. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 37.001 –.011; Carroll ISD, 245 S.W.3d at 624–25. Because these two issues have been decided previously by this court, our first opinion in this case constitutes the “law of the case” and determines the resolution of NWISD's first two issues.

Under this doctrine, a decision rendered in a former appeal of a case is generally binding in a later appeal of the same case. In re Assurances Generales Banque Nationale, 334 S.W.3d 323, 325 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2010, orig. proceeding); see In re Henry, 388 S.W.3d 719, 727 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2012, orig. proceeding [mand. denied] ); Truck Ins. Exch. v. Robertson, 89 S.W.3d 261, 264 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2002, no pet.). Having decided an issue previously, a court of appeals is not obligated to reconsider the matter in subsequent appeals. Paradigm Oil, Inc. v. Retamco Operating, Inc., 372 S.W.3d 177, 182 (Tex.2012) ; see also In re Henry, 388 S.W.3d at 727 ; In re Assurances Generales Banque Nationale, 334 S.W.3d at 325 ; Woods v. VanDevender, 296 S.W.3d 275, 279 (Tex.App.-Beaumont 2009, pet. denied) (all citing Briscoe v. Goodmark Corp., 102 S.W.3d 714, 716 (Tex.2003) ). It may do so in its own discretion, however, and there is not an absolute bar to reconsideration if subsequent hearings, briefing, or pleadings have modified the facts or relief sought. See Briscoe, 102 S.W.3d at 716–17. When, however, the jurisdictional issue is really one of law, our discretion to revisit the issue will be used sparingly, if at all. See, e.g., In re Henry, 388 S.W.3d at 728 ; City of Dallas v. Jones, 331 S.W.3d 781, 784–85 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2010, pet. dism'd). Regardless, our review of the record and the revised pleadings leads us to decline the invitation to revisit these issues since the issues relate to questions of law. NWISD's first and second issues are therefore overruled.³

Is This a Collateral Attack on Prior Elections and County Commission Orders?

In its third issue, NWISD claims the trial court lacked jurisdiction because CISD's suit is “an untimely contest and collateral attack of the [district's] 1948 and 1949 elections and [commissioners courts'] orders creating [NWISD] and its boundaries.” We did not address this issue in our 2008 opinion; therefore, we address it now.

NWISD claims that CISD's request for a declaratory judgment is simply a means to an end that circumvents the proper regulatory scheme.

Use of Declaratory Judgments Act When Boundary Involved or Judgment Questioned

After we issued our opinion in Tarrant County v. Denton County, our state's supreme court issued its opinion in Martin v. Amerman, which held a portion of our opinion invalid, stating that the use of the Declaratory Judgments Act to decide a boundary determination was incorrect and that a boundary dispute could be resolved by one method only: a trespass to try title action. Martin, 133 S.W.3d at 267–68 (holding trespass to try title statute governs method for determining title to real property and boundaries as well), superseded by Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 37.004(c) (reversing Martin's holding that relief under the Act is unavailable for boundary disputes). Quickly, however, the state legislature overruled Martin by adding subsection (c) to section 37.004 of the Declaratory Judgments Act. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 37.004(c). This provision authorizes a party to seek a determination on the construction of “a statute, municipal ordinance, contract, or franchise ” even when the only determination concerning title to real property involves the “proper boundary line between adjoining properties.” Id. § 37.004(a), (c) (emphasis added); see Act of May 17, 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., ch. 305, § 1, 2007 Tex. Gen. Laws 581, 581 (adding subsection (c) effective June 15, 2007).

NWISD misconstrues the impact of the legislature's revision to section 37.004. Subsection (c) does not say that one may now only seek a determination of a boundary line under the Declaratory Judgments Act if one is seeking a determination of title. It says simply and only that if one is seeking a determination of title, then notwithstanding that fact, one may seek a determination or declaration of a boundary under the Declaratory Judgments Act. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 37.004(c). In other words, if determining a boundary line may also result in declaring title to real property, a party is no longer prohibited...