Case Name: CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. J. A. RUBLE, Respondent; CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. Reese L. HARRISON et al., Respondents
Court: Supreme Court of Texas
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1970-02-04
Citations: 453 S.W.2d 280
Docket Number: No. B-1708
Parties: CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. J. A. RUBLE, Respondent. CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. Reese L. HARRISON et al., Respondents.
Judges: McGEE, J., joins in this dissent.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 453
Pages: 280–287

Head Matter:
CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. J. A. RUBLE, Respondent. CITY OF SAN ANTONIO, Petitioner, v. Reese L. HARRISON et al., Respondents.
No. B-1708.
Supreme Court of Texas.
Feb. 4, 1970.
Rehearing Denied April 29, 1970.
Matthews, Nowlin, Macfarlane & Barrett, Craig L. Austin, San Antonio, for petitioner.
Baskin, Casseb, Gilliland, Rodgers & Robertson, Richard G. Strong, W. Pat Camp, San Antonio, for respondents.

Opinion:
POPE, Justice.
The question presented by this case is whether the City of San Antonio acquired two easements in its condemnation proceedings against the San Antonio River Authority or whether the easements had been abandoned. The courts below have held that the City did not acquire the easements. Tex.Civ.App., 443 S.W.2d 894. We reverse that part of the judgment and render judgment for the City. We affirm that part of the judgment of the court of civil appeals that the City owned the dams themselves.
The opinion of the court of civil appeals fully states the facts, and we shall state them only briefly. In 1966, the City was planning to erect the Calavaras Dam for the purpose of impounding waters on approximately 3,500 acres of land which it needed for a proposed electrical generating plant. It therefore became necessary for the City to condemn the lands behind the proposed dam. At that time, the Harrisons owned the fee to 390.13 acres of land, Ruble owned the fee to 234.61 acres of land and each of those tracts was burdened with an easement which permitted a public agency to flood portions of the tracts as a part of a floodwater and sedimentation control program.
In 1967 the City instituted three condemnation proceedings. It filed one proceeding against the San Antonio River Authority to condemn the two easements. The San Antonio River Authority had acquired the easements from the original grantee. The date on which the City took the easements was July 13, 1967. The City next took the fee to the Harrisons' land on August 10, 1967, and they appealed from the award of the commissioners. The City then took the fee to Ruble's lands on November 8, 1967, and he also appealed from the award. The condemnation actions against the Harrisons and Ruble are still pending on appeal to the county court, awaiting the outcome of this action. The Harrisons and Ruble, after they appealed from their awards in the condemnation proceedings, filed suits in the district court for the purpose of obtaining declaratory judgments that the easements which previously burdened their lands had terminated. The significance of the cases is that the amount of damages to which the Harrisons and Ruble will be entitled in their condemnation appeals will be affected by a judgment that their lands were or were not burdened with the easements on the date their lands were taken. The trial court consolidated the two suits for declaratory judgment, denied the City's motion for summary judgment, and sustained the motion for summary judgment by the Harrisons and Ruble. The judgments below have sustained the landowners' contentions that their fee title was not burdened with the two easements when their land was taken.
The fee owners assert three reasons why we must affirm the judgments of the courts below in holding the easements had terminated: (1) The San Antonio River Authority by its transfer of the easements to the City following the award manifested an intent to abandon, (2) the City in taking the easements frustrated the intended purpose of the easements, and (3) the San Antonio River Authority and the City, by their acts, coupled with an intent to abandon, abandoned the easements. We find no merit in any of the contentions.
What, if anything, the City acquired in its proceedings to condemn the two easements must be determined as of the date the City took the easements. That date was July 13, 1967. In none of the transfers of the easements from one owner to another do we find any expression of any intent other than that of passing title. In 19S4, Ruble's predecessor in title granted an easement to the Alamo Soil-Conservation District. The easement granted the right to construct an earthen dam on the Ruble tract for the purpose of impounding water up to the 496 foot level to retard the flow of floodwaters and to control sedimentation. In 1956, the Harrisons' predecessors in title granted a similar 'easement over their land to the Alamo Soil Conservation District up to the 490 foot level. The portions of the easement which are here relevant are:
" the Grantors do hereby grant and convey unto the Grantee, their successors, and assigns, the right, privilege and authority to enter upon, construct, operate and maintain an earthen fill dam and other structures for the retardation of the flow of floodwaters and reduction of sedimentation, over and upon (property description).
"TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the aforesaid easement or right-of-way unto the Grantees, their successors and assigns, for so long as the Grantees, their successors and assigns, shall continue to use said easement or right-of-way for said purposes. In the event the maintenance and operation of such structures shall be abandoned by the Grantees, their ' successors and assigns, for a period of two years, the rights and privileges herein granted shall cease and determine. All property, fixtures, and improvements not removed by the Grantees within six months after expiration of this easement shall be and remain the property of the Grantors." (Emphasis added.)
The Alamo Soil Conservation District in 1963 conveyed a one-half interest in the easements to the San Antonio River Authority and on July 11, 1967 conveyed the other one-half interest to the River Authority. The City then condemned the River Authority's easement rights, and the record in that proceeding shows that, following the award of $88,753.18, the parties filed an agreement in lieu of the City's actual payment of the award at that time. They agreed "that all right, title and interest in and possession of the property and property rights condemned herein shall pass to and vest in the condemnor as of the date and time of this Award." Judgment was then rendered in the condemnation case that "the City of San Antonio is hereby vested with and does hereby have judgment against San Antonio River Authority, for all right, title and interest owned by the said San Antonio River Authority in and to the realty" in question.
The transfer of an easement passes the title and vests it in another, but it does not necessarily interrupt the continuity or terminate it. Shahan v. Northern Texas Traction Company, 266 S.W. 850 (Tex.Civ.App.1924, writ dism.); St. Peter's Church v. Bragaw, 144 N.C. 126, 56 S.E. 688, 10 L.R.A.,N.S., 633 (1890); 1 C.J.S. Abandonment § 2. The undisputed documentary evidence, portions of which are quoted above, shows that each owner of the easement had an intent to pass title to the easements rather than an intent to abandon them.
The landowners also suggest that, by the act of condemnation, the City itself caused the termination of the easements. The argument is that the easements were to endure so long as the grantee continued to use the easement for the stated purposes and those purposes were rendered impossible when the condemnor took the property. The argument was made in Hamman v. City of Houston, 362 S.W.2d 402 (Tex.Civ.App.1962, writ ref. n. r. e.) that the Cityjof Houston by condemning a tract for highway purposes caused a reversion to the original grantor because the tract had been deeded as a park which purpose was defeated. The court held that even though the condemnation of the land defeated the original purpose of a deed expressed in a condition subsequent, there was not a reversion to the grantor. The court cited a number of decisions outside of Texas which hold that a grantee who has not breached a condition subsequent is entitled to the award of any damages resulting from a condemnation, and the original grantor is not. See also City of San Antonio v. Congregation of Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, 360 S.W.2d 580 (Tex.Civ.App.1962, writ ref. n. r. e.). The rule is stated in State by Mondale v. Independent School Dist. No. 31, 266 Minn. 85, 123 N.W.2d 121 (1963) :
"As previously stated, the finding of the trial court that the use of the realty for the purposes specified in the deed had continued until the time of the taking by the state is supported by the evidence. Obviously, the condemnation of the tract by the state made impossible the continued use of the field for the purposes specified in the deed. However, it is uniformly held that realty does not revert where the use specified in the deed is discontinued solely because of a taking under the power of eminent domain."
The only other way that the easements could have been abandoned was by some act or omission to act by the owner of the easements which manifested an intent to abandon them. On July 13, 1967, the date the City took the easements, this record shows without dispute that the easements were being fully used. The earthen dams were being maintained and they were impounding water as they had continuously done since their construction. The flood and sedimentation controls continued until after the City took the fee from the Har-risons and Ruble. We hold that neither the San Antonio River Authority nor the City did or omitted to do any act which supports the conclusion that they intended to abandon the easements prior to the taking.
It is necessary, however, for us to determine the extent of the easements which the City took. The City states that the easements extended to the highest level the water could reach, that is, to the crest of the dams. That would be 496 feet above sea level in the case of the Ruble dam and 490 feet above sea level in the case of the Harrison dam. The landowners say that the limit of the easements is their historic high water mark, which is below the crest of the dams. It is our opinion that the easements permitted water up to the crest of the dam since that is the point to which the easements entitled the easement owners to raise the water level without a trespass upon the fee owners. Thew v. Lower Colorado River Authority, 259 S.W.2d 939 (Tex.Civ.App.1953, no writ); City of Anson v. Arnett, 250 S.W.2d 450 (Tex.Civ.App.1952, writ ref. n. r. e.); Kestler v. Verble, 52 N.C. 185 (1859) ; Vol. 2, Thompson on Real Property, § 681, (Perm. ed. 1939).
That part of the judgment of the court of civil appeals which held that the earthen structures were owned by the City has not been brought forward and is affirmed. We reverse that part of the judgment which declared the easements have terminated, and we render judgment that the City acquired the title to the easements by its taking on July 13, 1967.