Court Opinion

ID: 9759356
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:13:45.427913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:01.513536
License: Public Domain

GREENHILL, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I am unable to reconcile a part of the court’s opinion with the holding of this court in City of Beaumont v. Fertitta, 415 S.W.2d 902 (Tex.1967).
I agree with the court’s judgment of this case because the property in question is strictly governed and encumbered by the Facility Agreement for the use and benefit of the private industries, and because I am of the opinion that this court’s opinion and judgment in Fertitta was, and is, wrong. I joined two other justices in the dissent in that case.
The municipality’s title to the land in Fertitta was subject to a long-term lease wholly for private use. As the dissent in Fertitta said, “The Court is now holding for the first time that the Legislature may exempt municipal property devoted to private use.”
The better rule is stated by this court in Leander Independent School District v. Cedar Park Water Supply Corp., 479 S.W.2d 908 (1972), where we said, “We accordingly now hold that the clause [of the Texas Constitution] in question authorizes the Legislature to exempt only publicly owned property used for public purposes.”