Opinion ID: 771583
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Substantive Due Process Violation

Text: 36 Satisfied that the County's blockage of access implicates a constitutionally protected property right, we must ask next whether this denial is rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest. See FM Prop., 93 F.3d at 174. The question is only whether a rational relationship exists between the [policy] and a conceivable legitimate objective. If the question is at least debatable, there is no substantive due process violation. Id. (alteration in original) (citations omitted). Even under this low threshold, we are unpersuaded that a rational basis exists to justify the County's interference with Simi's property rights. 37 In brief, it is apparent from the record that the County cannot demonstrate that a five-foot park ever existed in between Fannin Street and the Simi Property. Further, we can ascertain no rational reason for the County to deny abutting owners access to the street when the City of Houston now has complete jurisdiction over Fannin Street. Most troubling, however, the record reflects what the district court found to be an illegitimate plan to benefit the private interests of Hofheinz-Smith whose properties were financially benefitted by the denial of access to the other properties abutting Fannin Street. As will be discussed in detail below, the evidence demonstrates that the County acted arbitrarily in inventing a park and, thus, acted without a rational basis in depriving Simi of a constitutionally protected interest. 38 The dispositive question in this case is whether or not there ever was a park. The district court found that the County had never established a park. We agree. 39 First, the County has failed to provide any official documentation of the existence of a park. None of the five surveys included in the record shows any sign of a county park. The 1978 survey prepared by R.A. Peyton & Associates for the City of Houston shows an eight-inch water main crossing Fannin Street without reference to an intervening county park. The 1988 survey prepared for the Holly Hall Home for the Retired, located north of the Simi Property does not show a park. The 1991 survey prepared by the South Texas Surveying Associates Inc. shows Simi's property directly abutting Fannin Street. The 1993 survey prepared by PGAL Engineering for METRO in order to install a sidewalk on the strip makes no mention of a county park. Finally, in 1996, Karen Rose Engineering & Surveying completed a survey that shows the east line of the Fannin Street right-of-way and the Simi property line to be the same. All of the above surveys were signed and sealed by registered professional surveyors. 40 These surveys also support Simi's claim that the Fannin Street right-of-way has always abutted the eastern properties, including the Simi Property. The district court found that the Hermann Hospital Estate deed determined the proper boundaries of the right-of-way. The deed provided that the Fannin right-of-way would run along the east side of the Astrodome property with the remaining western portion of said Property to be used for street purposes or included in a park and stadium site lying along the West side of said Property. Under this deed, no parkland was reserved on the east of Fannin Street, and the right-of-way apparently was intended to extend to Simi's property line. No County Commissioners order changed this initial understanding of the right-of-way. 15 In fact, this understanding was confirmed when the County moved back the fences to the existing property line abutting what is now Simi's property. 41 In contrast, the sole descriptive evidence presented by the County was the altered version of the 1961 unsigned and unofficial plat. The altered version of the plat is of limited persuasive authority because it provides no information about the purpose or date of the alteration, and includes the language location questionable to denote the uncertain placement of Fannin Street. Without some justification for why a five-foot setoff was created just south of the Hofheinz-Smith land, conveniently blocking all of the other property owners, we are compelled to find that this plat cannot carry the burden of establishing the County's park. 42 The County also relies on Lovett v. County of Harris, a Texas Court of Civil Appeals case that decided an earlier dispute about this strip of land. See 462 S.W.2d 405 (Tex. Civ. App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1970, writ ref'd n.r.e.). As a procedural matter, we find that the County has waived this issue for purposes of res judicata as it inexplicably failed to raise this argument until six months after the district court's Interlocutory Judgment and three years after the initial complaint. 16 However, as the case provides a discussion about the disputed land, we address its reasoning. 43 Lovett involved a suit by landowners whose property overlapped some of the current Simi Property. These landowners sought a mandatory injunction against the County to remove a six-foot chain-link fence, which ran along the property line and separated the Fannin Street right-of-way and their properties. See id. at 406. The court denied the request for an injunction finding that: (1) Fannin Street did not abut the landowners' property; (2) a 16.6 foot strip of land intervened between Fannin Street and the landowners' property; (3) neither the deed nor the City of Houston had dedicated the 16.6 feet of land as being used for street purposes; and (4) there was no taking of land under Article I, Section 17 of the Texas Constitution. See id. at 406-07. 44 This holding, while seemingly supportive of the County's claim, fails to carry the argument. First, we note that the Lovett court affirmed the lower court's decision which, as the Lovett court noted, did not include any findings of fact or conclusions of law. 17 Second and more important for our purposes, no showing was made that any county park existed, or even that the County argued that a park existed on the land. All that Lovett proves is that, as of 1970, the County held ownership to the eastern part of Fannin Street, a conclusion with which all parties agree. Third, the Lovett decision supports the contention that the Fannin Street right-of-way (if not the street) extended to the boundary of the Simi Property. As this is where the disputed fence was placed, it is apparent the county land abuts the Simi Property. Finally, the state law takings holding is irrelevant to our analysis involving the existence of a substantive due process violation. 45 Even accepting the factual findings of the Lovett court, the issue left open is what happened to the 16.6 foot strip once the County yielded jurisdiction over Fannin Street to the City of Houston in 1974. It is undisputed that Fannin Street was ceded to the City, but there is no record that in doing so, the County retained an interest in a remaining five-foot strip of land. Once the City of Houston took responsibility for the street and the accompanying traffic and maintenance responsibilities, we are hard pressed to find a reason for the County's retention of five feet out of the original 16.6 feet of land. 46 Furthermore, the County's claim that a park has always existed is belied by the fact that the park has not been treated as such by the County. City gas lines, water lines, and a sidewalk were all constructed on the park without receiving proper authorization or an easement from the County. As the district court found in its Chronology: 47 The County and Simi Investment agree that the County cannot sell or otherwise encumber its park land unless the encumbrance is approved by Commissioners Court Order with public notice under a state statute. The County and Simi Investment agree that no Commissioners Court Order can be found authorizing Entex, Houston, or METRO to construct facilities on the property and further, that there is no evidence that the County complied with the statutory notice requirements to convey an interest in this property to Entex, the City, or METRO. 48 Simi, 13 F. Supp. 2d at 611-12. Further, owners of other properties along Fannin Street have developed their land in a manner that demonstrates that no park exists. For example, the owners of the Holly Hall tract north of the Simi Property along Fannin Street developed their property with a twenty-five foot setback from the street, pursuant to local ordinance. This twenty-five foot setback would not have been necessary if a five-foot park intervened between the street and the property. 49 From the foregoing, we agree with the district court that Harris County has no interest in an intervening 5-foot by 3,000-foot strip east of Fannin Street and west of Knight's Main Street Addition [the Simi Property] and Holly Hall property, making illegal its interference with the owners' relation to the City of Houston and Fannin Street. [and] Harris County has ceded to the city of Houston all of its right, title, and interest in the eastern-most 100 feet of land conveyed to it by the Hermann Estate. Simi, 13 F. Supp. 2d at 612. 50 Measured against the rational basis test, a nonexistent park used by County officials to interfere with private property interests is clearly arbitrary, capricious, and violative of due process. While the 'rational basis' standard is the least demanding test used by the courts to uphold [governmental] action, it is not 'toothless.' Berger v. City of Mayfield Heights, 154 F.3d 621, 625 (6th Cir. 1998) (quoting Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495, 510 (1976)). More damaging to the County's argument, the only basis in the record to explain the County's interference with access appears to be that - as the district court recognized - this impediment would benefit the privately held Hofheinz-Smith properties and the HSA. 51 The record clearly suggests that creation of a park worked to enhance the value of the Hofheinz-Smith properties. 18 As the district court found, interestingly, that ridiculously narrow park limits the access of only those property owners who would compete with the Hofheinz-Smith interests. Simi, 13 F. Supp. 2d at 607. Proof of this influence began in 1964 when the County denied Texaco the right of access to Fannin Street on the basis of Hofheinz's objection. Furthermore, we note that the original request to gain access to the street was denied not because of the County's own claim to the land or an assertion of a park, but because of Hofheinz's erroneous assertion that HSA owned the strip of land. 52 That the County acted to benefit solely private interests does not necessarily demonstrate a substantive due process violation. For substantive due process purposes, the true purpose of the [policy], (i.e., the actual purpose that may have motivated its proponents, assuming this can be known) is irrelevant for rational basis analysis. FM Prop., 93 F.3d at 174. However, the County failed to put forth any alternative rational basis for the continued interference with private property rights. 19 Certainly in 1994, twenty years after the County had ceded control over Fannin Street to the City of Houston, there was no rational basis for blocking access to the street. Once jurisdiction shifted to the City, whatever interests in maintaining traffic control or other governmental responsibilities that could be hypothesized to justify interference with access to Fannin Street disappear. Without a park and without a rational basis for impeding access, the County's arguments fail to survive even a rational basis review. 53 We, therefore, affirm the district court's findings that the County acted arbitrarily and without a legitimate governmental purpose. We hold that the invention of a park solely to deny private property holders lawful access to an abutting street is an abuse of governmental power, which on this peculiar factual foundation rises to the level of a substantive due process violation. Having successfully pled a deprivation of a constitutional right under § 1983, Simi is entitled to the relief granted by the district court.