Court Opinion

ID: 9830153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:56:09.070059+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:14.594010
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
We find that .the trial court correctly held that the plea by defendants (appellants) presented no defense, in so far as it pled: that plaintiff’s suit is based on a paving certificate issued under and by virtue of a paving contract within the City of Houston as set forth in the petition, and that said contract and all proceedings thereunder are void because under the Charter of the City of Houston the City Comptroller is required to join in all such contracts as a prerequisite thereto, and certify that all funds necessary therefore are available for carrying out said contract, and in the absence of which the paving certificate, contract and all proceedings thereunder are void. See Sections 7 and 8, IV A of the Charter of Houston; Scanlan v. Gulf Bitulithic Co., Tex.Com.App., 44 S.W.2d 967, 80 A.L.R. 852; Scanlan v. Continental Inv. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 142 S.W.2d 432, dis. correct judgment. In the last cited case, 142 S.W.2d at page 436, it was said: “It can work no harm on the property owner to be required to make his objection before the paving is laid, and it is not right to permit him to gamble on getting improvements to his property at the expense of the paving contractor by urging objections which, if valid, could as well have been urged before the paving was laid.”
Since said plea presented no defense the court correctly ordered it stricken from the answers.
The original opinion is therefore corrected to the extent indicated.
Appellee’s motion for rehearing is refused.