State ex rel. White v. Bradley
| Decision Date | 06 November 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 2-97-259-CV,2-97-259-CV |
| Citation | 956 S.W.2d 725 |
| Parties | The STATE of Texas on the Relation of Dale WHITE, Appellant, v. Scott BRADLEY, Appellee. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
The State of Texas, on the relation of Dale White, appeals from the district court's quo warranto judgment determining that Scott Bradley, not Dale White, is entitled by law to hold the office of mayor in the Town of Westlake. The appeal is accelerated. See TEX.R.APP. P. 28.2. 1 We reverse the district court judgment and render judgment granting the State's motion for summary judgment.
The Legislature has provided that an elected officer of a general-law municipality is subject to removal from office upon written complaint filed by any person alleging grounds of official misconduct or incompetency as those terms are defined by statute. See TEX. LOC. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 21.002 (Vernon 1988). At the point when a complaint is filed against a mayor on one or more of the statutory grounds, the statute invests the individual aldermen with the duty to sit as "members of the court" to try and to determine the case against the mayor. See id. § 21.002(f), (g), (h). To trigger that duty, a written complaint against a mayor must be filed; the aldermen must serve a copy of it on the accused mayor and must set a date for the individual aldermen to sit as a court and conduct the trial of the complaint; and notice must be served on the mayor and each alderman to appear for the trial on that date. See id. § 21.002(f). If two-thirds of the aldermen present at the trial of the case find the mayor guilty of the charges contained in the complaint and if they find that is sufficient cause for removing the mayor from office, the statute authorizes the presiding officer of their trial to enter a judgment removing the mayor and declaring that office vacant. Whenever a vacancy exists on the governing body, a majority of the remaining aldermen (excluding the mayor) are authorized to fill it by appointment unless an election to fill the vacancy is required by article XI, section 11 of the Texas Constitution. See TEX. LOC. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 22.010 (Vernon 1988). 2
The statute identifies the removal proceeding as a "trial." See id. At least one Texas court has characterized a proceeding for removal of an elected city official as "impeachment." See Riggins v. Thompson, 30 Tex.Civ.App. 242, 70 S.W. 578, 578 (1902, writ ref'd). The Texas Supreme Court once described the proceeding as "administrative," where a city charter provided for a removal proceeding to be conducted by a city council. See Riggins v. Richards, 97 Tex. 229, 77 S.W. 946, 947-48 (1904). In a mandamus proceeding connected to the case now on appeal, we alluded to the section 21.002 removal process as "administrative," 3 but in this opinion, for reasons we will discuss, we will identify it by the statute's word, "trial."
In a general-law municipality, a mayor and board of aldermen are the governing body. 4 One of the aldermen in the general-law municipality of Westlake complained of Mayor Scott Bradley in the manner provided in section 21.002, alleging grounds of incompetency and official misconduct. An allegation of "incompetency" in removal proceedings is not used in the sense that the officer complained of does not have the ability and intelligence sufficient to perform the official duties of office, but rather in a sense that the officer has exceeded his or her authority by defying or overruling lawful actions done by a city council. See Riggins v. City of Waco, 40 Tex.Civ.App. 569, 90 S.W. 657, 663 (1905, writ ref'd). There, the court opined that a mayor who ignores the legislative will of a board of aldermen because it does not suit his convenience or ideas is "incompetent" in the sense that it is a ground for removal from office. Id. 90 S.W. at 663.
The term "official misconduct" alone does not imply criminal behavior, because the law recognizes different types of official misconduct. See Talamantez v. State, 829 S.W.2d 174, 179-80 (Tex.Crim.App.1992). Talamantez was an appeal by a county commissioner after he was convicted of a third degree felony involving criminal official misconduct. In the opinion, Judge Clinton acknowledged that in a given situation there may be a close relationship between "removal official misconduct" and "criminal official misconduct." Id. at 180 (emphasis added). Only the latter was involved in Talamantez. However, the corollary to the observation that a close relationship may exist is that a meaningful distinction between the two types of official misconduct does exist, and that "removal official misconduct" is not necessarily the same as "criminal official misconduct." In Mr. Bradley's case, the complaint filed against him in the Town of Westlake under section 21.002 does not charge him in words that allege a crime defined by the Texas Penal Code.
The Texas Supreme Court long ago acknowledged that when a city charter gives the city council, as a governing body, the power to remove city officers on grounds of misconduct, that council has a duty to hear the complaint and remove an officer who is found guilty of the grounds alleged. See Riggins v. Richards, 77 S.W. at 947. In Mr. Bradley's case, however, the board of aldermen, a governmental body, was not statutorily vested with that duty. Instead, section 21.002 charges the individual aldermen of a general-law municipality to sit as a special court for a removal trial.
The specific allegations of the complaint made against Mr. Bradley and filed with the aldermen are:
a. On April 10, 1997, Mayor Scott Bradley intentionally removed the notice for a special meeting that had been called by the Mayor Pro Tem upon Mayor Scott Bradley's failure to call said meeting. The Notice of Special Meeting had been properly posted by the Town Secretary at the direction of Carroll Huntress, Mayor Pro Tem. Additionally, Mayor Scott Bradley purported to unilaterally cancel the Special Meeting called for April 11, 1997 at 7:30 p.m. by posting a Notice to the citizens of the Town of Westlake on April 10, 1997.
b. On April 11, 1997, Mayor Scott Bradley directed the Town Secretary to not include agenda item 9, "[c]onsider and take action to continue the regular meeting to a date and time certain" on the agenda as requested by Mayor Pro Tem Carroll Huntress on that day. Such action is contrary to the accepted practices of the government of the Town of Westlake.
c. Mayor Scott Bradley instructed the Town Secretary to remove from proposed minutes of the meeting of March 24, 1997 action taken during that meeting. Such instructions called upon the Town Secretary to violate her statutory duties to accurately record the proceedings of the Board of Aldermen taken during the meeting d. Mayor Scott Bradley caused the Town Engineer to prepare a false boundary map for the Town of Westlake in March 1995. Such map did not reflect the current boundaries of the town at that time and included property that had not been annexed into, and was not part of, the Town of Westlake. Mayor Bradley further caused the falsified boundary map to be presented to the Board of Aldermen as a part of Ordinance No. 237, with a false statement that the map reflected the current boundaries of the Town of Westlake, and signed and approved said Ordinance No. 237 with knowledge of the above.
After the trial, the members of the special court found Mr. Bradley guilty of the incompetency and official misconduct alleged in the complaint and found sufficient cause for his removal as mayor. The presiding officer of the trial then signed a judgment removing Mr. Bradley from the office of mayor and declaring the office vacant. Several days after the judgment was entered, the board appointed Dale White to fill the vacancy as mayor. See TEX. LOC. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 22.010 (Vernon 1988).
When more than one person claims the same public office, an action in quo warranto is a proper procedure for determining the conflict. See Dean v. State ex rel. Bailey, 88 Tex. 290, 30 S.W. 1047, 1048 (1895). Quo warranto proceedings evolved from the common law, and where a public wrong was involved, the sovereign was necessarily the quo warranto plaintiff. See State ex rel. Cavanaugh v. Nelson, 170 S.W. 814, 815 (Tex.Civ.App.--Amarillo 1914, no writ). Historically, it was necessary that quo warranto proceedings be filed by and upon the relation of the attorney general or a district attorney. See id. The same is true under today's statutes. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. § 66.002 (Vernon 1997).
When Mr. Bradley claimed after his trial that the judgment had not lawfully removed him as Westlake's mayor, the State of Texas, on the relation of the board of aldermen's mayoral-appointee, Mr. White, filed a quo warranto action in the district court. As grounds for that relief, the State alleged that although the members of the special court had lawfully removed Mr. Bradley from office and after the board had appointed Mr. White as his successor, Mr. Bradley refused to leave and instead became a usurper and intruder by unlawfully claiming to hold the office of mayor. See TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM.CODE ANN. §§ 66.001, 66.002 (Vernon 1997); TEX.R. CIV. P. 779-782.
Once the quo warranto action began, the State and Mr. Bradley each filed a motion for summary judgment. By their respective motions, the parties claimed in the district court that the only issues in the quo warranto action were issues of law, not genuine issues of material fact. The district court's determination of those motions is the platform for this appeal by the State. The quo warranto action ended with the district court's order denying the State's motion and granting Mr. Bradley's motion. The written order entitled "Trial Court Decision" is final and appealable, and the State contends that the relief granted in the order exceeds the relief authorized by statut...
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