Court Opinion

ID: 9828859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 18:48:14.431245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:53.846289
License: Public Domain

On Appellees’ Motion for Rehearing.
Both parties have filed motions for rehearing, and we have again reviewed the record in view of those motions. We adhere to the conclusions of law arrived at in the original disposition, but further consideration of the record requires readjustment and application of some of the facts of the case. To that end we have concluded to modify some of the original findings, and conform the remedies to those modifications, without attempting to here restate the whole case.
It was' stipulated by the parties below that the following county roads were in existence and in necessary use by the public at the time the District constructed its main canal across said roads:
1. Ojo de Agua or Abram Road.
2. Calvin Greene Estate Road.
3. Road between Porciones 50 and 51.
4. Mission Groves Estate or Dunbar Road.
5. Inspiration Boulevard.
It was further stipulated that at the time its canal intersected those roads the District constructed, or caused to be constructed, bridges over all of said roads and that all such bridges “have become worn out and have fallen into a state of disrepair and dilapidation so that same are now in bad condition and need of repair or replacement. It is now necessary that each of said. bridges be repaired or replaced with a new structure, so as to make each of the crossings safe and convenient for public travel.” In addition to those stipulations the trial judge found, specifically, and upon sufficient evidence, that another road, the Goodwin East Line Road (No. 6) “was (1) a public or county road in use at the time the defendant District’s Main Canal was constructed; (2) that no bridge was constructed by defendant District at the point where this road was intersected by the Canal; and (3) that the road continued down to date to be used by the public, although obstructed by the Canal,” and, by necessary implication, that a bridge at said crossing was necessary for the safety and convenience of the public. We must adopt those stipulations and findings as our findings of fact in the case.
Applying to those facts the law as announced in the original opinion, it was the duty and obligation of the District to build and maintain bridges over its canals at each of said crossings over county roads. The District did construct bridges at each of those crossings except the Goodwin East Line crossing, but refuses to keep those bridges in necessary repair, and refuses to construct a necessary bridge at the Goodwin East Line Crossing. In view of these' refusals, the trial court properly granted the writ of mandamus requiring the District to perform those obligations. McQuillan Municipal Corporations (2d Ed) §§ 2713, 2727; Orange County v. Canal Co., Tex.Civ.App., 143 S.W. 963; Miller v. State, Tex.Civ.App., 53 S.W.2d 838, writ refused.
On the other hand, the trial court erred in requiring the District to build and maintain bridges at the other two crossings involved, over county roads which were laid out and opened to public use after the District’s canal had been constructed, to-wit: Mile One North (No. 6) and Bent-sen Drive (No. 7), and in awarding judgment in favor of the County and against the District for monies expended by the County in constructing bridges at those crossings.
The case appears to have been fully developed in all its essentials, and in accordance with the foregoing conclusions, and under the law as pronounced in the original opinion, the judgment of the trial court requiring the District by writ of mandamus to complete and maintain bridges Nos. 6 and 7, and awarding a money judgment in favor of the County and against the District, will be reversed and in those respects judgment will be here rendered that the County take nothing and that the writ of mandamus be denied; but the judgment will be affirmed insofar as it awards writ of mandamus requiring the District and its officers to build and maintain a bridge at the Goodwin East Line Crossing, and repair and hereafter maintain the bridges at crossings 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Affirmed in part and reversed and rendered in part.