Court Opinion

ID: 9774180
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:10:50.412452+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:03.299163
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
Appellants strongly argue that in our consideration of their major point we failed to make appropriate use of the settled rule that in determining the propriety of a directed verdict, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the losing party. However, not to be overlooked in application of this principle, is the distinction between cases cited by them and those cases which relate to the exercise of judgment and discretion by a duly constituted administrative agency of the State. Here, defendant Commissioners, having been granted by statute the power of eminent domain, there is at once removed iron, the jury’s function the power to pass upor the necessity of acquiring a particular piecf of property in the exercise of that power As stated in Housing Authority of City of Dallas v. Higginbotham, supra, this determination of necessity is conclusive ⅛ absence of fraud, and appellants point to no evidence in the record of fraudulent action. As constituting evidence of arbitrary and capricious action, appellants present their version of particular testimony (the Housing Commissioners, Director Stephenson, and Exhibits) which has again been given careful reading.
Regardless of whether the court or jury might consider these Commissioners to have acted unwisely or mistakenly in their fixing of the particular project boundaries at 513 acres, we again find nothing in this record raising issues of arbitrary or capricious conduct under the cited rule of Webb v. Dameron, supra. See also City of University Park v. Hoblitzelle, Tex.Civ. App., 150 S.W.2d 169; Lone Star Gas Co.v. State, 137 Tex. 279, 153 S.W.2d 681; Driskell v. Board of Adjustment, Tex.Civ. App., 195 S.W.2d 594; Thomas v. Stanolind Oil & Gas Co., 145 Tex. 270, 198 S.W. 2d 420; Edge v. City of Bellaire, Tex. Civ.App., 200 S.W.2d 224; Jones v. Marsh, 148 Tex. 362, 224 S.W.2d 198; Patillo v. County School Trustees, Tex.Civ.App., 235 S.W.2d 924.
Counsel correctly states that in contrast with the situation in Townsend’s appeal, the Hoffman and Foy deeds contained the additional clause: “this conveyance is given in confirmation of the condemnation proceedings now pending, and the award of the Commissioners made therein which award is accepted by the grantors herein”; deed to Hampton Gardens lots being in settlement of threatened condemnation proceedings.
The entire record has been re-examined along with appellants’ argument on rehearing, but the motion therefor must be overruled.