(DOWNLOAD) "City of Tyler" by In the Supreme Court of Texas # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: City of Tyler
- Author : In the Supreme Court of Texas
- Release Date : January 30, 2006
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 57 KB
Description
Timothy and Susan Beck owned real property that the City of Tyler initiated proceedings to condemn. Three appointed special commissioners assessed damages to the Becks and entered an award. TEX. PROP. CODE 21.014. The City, and then the Becks, filed objections to the award and sent copies to opposing counsel, but neither issued formal service of citation on the other as the Property Code requires. Id. 21.018(b); see also Amason v. Natural Gas Pipeline Co., 682 S.W.2d 240, 242 (Tex. 1985) (citing Denton County v. Brammer, 361 S.W.2d 198, 200 (Tex. 1962)). The trial court dismissed the case for want of prosecution due to lack of service and reinstated the award. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that conversion of an administrative condemnation proceeding into a judicial one, which operates to vacate the commissioners award, turns upon service of citation, the absence of which in this case demonstrated a failure to prosecute. ___ S.W.3d ___. We disagree. Judicial condemnation proceedings commence when an objection to the award is filed; if service of citation is not timely secured, the award is subject to reinstatement. In this case, both parties invoked the judicial process by filing objections to the commissioners award, and each participated in the judicial proceedings with notice of the others objections. Under these circumstances, we hold that the purposes of the formal citation requirement were met and the trial court erred in dismissing the case. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals judgment and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.