## In The Court of Appeals Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo

No. 07 - 19 - 00 311 - C

V THE STATE OF TEXAS , APPELLANT

V. CHAPMAN CHILDREN ’ S TRUST I , APPELLEE On Appeal from the County Court at Law No . 1

Potter County, Texas Trial Court No. 81,106 - 1 , Honorable Walt Weaver , Presiding



### March 16 , 202 1 MEMORANDUM OPINION Before QUINN, C.J., and PARKER , and DOSS, JJ. T he State of Texas appeals from an order granting a third motion by Chapman Children ’ s Trust I to clarify and enforce the 2000 agreed judgment entered in a condemnation proceeding. 1 Finding the trial court exceeded its authority in rendering the order, we vacate it and dismiss the appeal .

1 The Trust ’ s efforts to clarify and enforce the agreed judgment have been before this Court twice . State v. Chapma n Children ’ s Trust I , No. 07 - 09 - 00222 - CV, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 1814 (Tex. App.
— Amarillo Mar . 12, 2010, no pet.) (mem. op.) ; State v. Chapman Children ’ s Trust I , No. 07 - 08 - 0050 - CV, 2008 Tex. App . LEXIS 7556 (Tex. App.
— Amarillo Oct. 8, 2008, no pet.) (mem. op.)
.2

Background On November 16, 2000, the trial court signed an agreed judgment in a condemnation proceeding brought by the State against the Trust . Through the agreed judgment, t he State acquired land for construction of a portion of Loop Highway 335 surrounding Amarillo. The decree also specified the compensation to be paid by and the respective obligations of the litigants. Among other things, it provided th e following : [The Trust] will give all necessary right - of - way for one way frontage roads, turnaround under the BNS F Railway Bridge and future Coulter Street interchange with Loop Highway 335, each to be built by TxDOT, at [the State ’ s] costs, in the area agreed to by George Chapman and TxDOT as needed. Th rough th e Trust ’ s most recent motion to clarify and enforce the agreed judgment , it sought , among other things, the installation of an overpass and its immediate construction. A hearing on the motion was held in July 2019. At it, the Trust presented evidence purportedly illustrating that immediate constru ction of the items encompassed within the aforementioned paragraph was “ needed . ” They also argued that such construction (and the language of the agreed judgment) necessarily included installation of an overpass. T h ereafter, the trial court agreed and or dered the Texas Department of Transportation “ to comply with the terms of the Agreed Judgment by immediately undertaking the construction of the overpass and the turnarounds and the one - way frontage roads at the Coulter Street interchange with Loop Highway 335, and to complete such construction within 36 months from the date of this Order
. ” Disposition On appeal, the State asserts that the post - judgment enforcement order is inconsistent with the agreed judgment and constitutes a material change to it. We agree.3

As we held in our first iteration of “ Trust versus State , ” orders enforcing a judgment over which a trial court ’ s plenary jurisdiction has lapsed must neither be inconsistent with the original judgment nor constitute a material change to it . Chapman Children ’ s Trust I , 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 7556 , at *5. Nor can they add obligations to those previously imposed by the decre e. Id. And, just as we recognized earlier , “ [n] othing in the 2000 agreed judgment requires construction of contemplated highway improvements in connection with construction of Coulter Street , ” which “ contemplated highway improvements ” included the installation of an overpass. 2 Id. at * 6. Nor did the 2000 decree impose a duty upon the State to complete construction efforts by a time certain
. So, like the order addressed in the earlier iteration of “ Trust v. State , ” the order at bar

“ exceeded the extent of the court ’ s power to enforce its existing orders [] and is void . ” Id. at *6 – 7. We vacate the trial court ’ s “ Order on Third Motion to Clarify and Enforce Judgment ” and dismiss the appeal.
Per Curi a m

2 The passage from the agreed judgment in play here was the same one in play in Chapman Children ’ s Trust I , 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 7556 , at *1 . Again, that passage state d that : “ [The Trust] will give all necessary right - of - way for one way frontage roads, turnaround under the BNSF Railway Bridge and future Coulter Street interchange with Loop Highway 335, each to be built by TxDOT, at [the State ’ s] costs, in the area agreed to by George Chapman and TxDOT as needed. ”