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Houston Appellate Court Rules on Hunters Creek Village case |
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Written by Amy
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Sunday, 10 November 2002 |
The trial court in Reese v. City of Hunter's Creek Village dismissed a citizen's suit challenge to bike ban signs erected on city streets under a mandatory sideapath ordinance. The court declined jurisdiction under the doctrine that civil courts do not have jurisdiction to declare penal ordinances invalid. Despite clear statutory language and Texas Department of Transportation regulations prohibiting such signs, as well as a Texas Attorney General's opinion against such signs except on freeways, the First Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's dismissal on October 31, 2002. According to the Court of Appeals, "The dangers that purportedly arise as a result of appellants’ being required to dismount their bicycles and cross to the other side of the street in areas where sidewalks appear on alternate sides of the roadway are not the sort of vested property interest that appellants may use to" invoke the declaratory judgment jurisdiction of a civil court.
Plaintifff Janan Toma still has a criminal conviction on appeal to the same court, and a decision is expected shortly. The plaintiffs in the civil suit are considering their options for further appeals or other legal proceedings, if necessary.
What does all this mean? It means that even though the signs are illegal under Texas law, the civil courts do not have jurisdiction to order them taken down. Apparently, one must get ticketed and contest each sign individually in the criminal courts. Unfortunately, the City of Hunter's Creek Village is not giving any further tickets, so the signs will apparently stay up for the forseeable future. Anyone who is ticketed or harassed in Hunter's Creek Village should contact BikeHouston.
The judges' ruling can be found here:
http://www.texasbarcle.com/materials/digests/opinions/12418.pdfThanks to doggerham for alerting us to the latest development. |
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