Must an appellate court reviewing a verdict for legal sufficiency start by considering all the evidence or only part? Over the years, we have stated both as the proper scope of review. While some see the standards as opposing, we disagree; like a glass that is half-full or half-empty, both arrive at the same point regardless of where they start.
But both standards must be properly applied. Rules and reason sometimes compel that evidence must be credited or discarded whether it supports a verdict or contradicts it. Under either scope of review, appellate courts must view the evidence in the light favorable to the verdict, crediting favorable evidence if reasonable jurors could, and disregarding contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not. As we find the evidence here meets neither standard, we reverse.
I. Factual and Procedural History
The City of Keller is one of several fast-growing communities on the outskirts of
The Wilsons own property southeast of the new subdivisions, with a tract owned by Z.T. Sebastian lying between. Before development, surface water flowed generally north to south from the land where the subdivisions were built, across the Sebastian and Wilson properties, and into the Little Bear Creek Watershed.
In 1991, the City adopted a Master Drainage Plan providing for drainage easements across both the Sebastian and Wilson properties, and thence into Little Bear Creek. The City's codes require developers to comply with the Master Plan, to provide drainage for a 100-year rain event, and to avoid increasing the volume or velocity of water discharged upon downhill properties.
The developers of Oak Run and Rancho Serena submitted plans to the City indicating they would buy a drainage easement and build a ditch forty-five feet wide and more than two hundred yards long across the Sebastian property, and deed both to the City upon completion.
In accordance with the Master Plan, the City built a box culvert south of the Wilsons' property. But as the developers' drainage ditch ended at the Wilsons' north property line, there was no link between the two. The Wilsons alleged and the jury found this omission increased flooding on the Wilsons' property, ruining eight acres of farmland the jury valued at almost $300,000.
To recover damages for inverse condemnation, the Wilsons had to prove the City intentionally took or damaged their property for public use, or was substantially certain that would be the result.
The City contends no evidence supports the jury's finding of an intentional taking. It presented evidence that engineers for the developers, for the City, and for an outside firm the City retained all certified that the revised drainage plan complied with the City's codes and regulations — including the ban against increasing downstream runoff. Thus, the City asserts it had no reason to be substantially certain the opposite would occur, until it did.
A divided court of appeals rejected this contention.
We have on many occasions stated the scope of review precisely as the court of appeals says (the "exclusive" standard).
Although this Court has used both the exclusive and the inclusive standards interchangeably over the years, commentators say the two are different.
II. Contrary Evidence That Cannot Be Disregarded
The question presented here is not a new one. More than 40 years ago, then Justice Calvert
According to the article:
We have quoted a similar formulation on many occasions.
Notably, Justice Calvert then proceeded to put the question before us in the proper context:
Clearly, the traditional rule in Texas has never been that appellate courts must reject contrary evidence in every no-evidence review. Instead, the traditional scope of review does not disregard contrary evidence if there is no favorable evidence
As the following examples show, this has remained the rule since. We do not presume to categorize all circumstances in which contrary evidence must be considered in a legal sufficiency review. Evidence can be disregarded whenever reasonable jurors could do so,
A. Contextual Evidence
In Justice Calvert's first situation — a complete absence of evidence of a vital fact — it is generally irrelevant whether a reviewing court considers contrary evidence.
For example, publications alleged to be defamatory must be viewed as a whole — including accompanying statements, headlines, pictures, and the general tenor and reputation of the source itself.
Similarly, reviewing courts must construe contracts as a whole; we do not consider only the parts favoring one party and disregard the remainder, as that would render the latter meaningless.
It is not just writings that reviewing courts must consider in context. For example, in reviewing intentional infliction of emotional distress claims for legal sufficiency, "we consider the context and the relationship between the parties."
More generally, evidence cannot be taken out of context in a way that makes it seem to support a verdict when in fact it never did.
Thus, if evidence may be legally sufficient in one context but insufficient in another, the context cannot be disregarded even if that means rendering judgment contrary to the jury's verdict. Either "evidence contrary to the verdict" must be defined to exclude material contextual evidence, or it must be an exception to the general rule.
B. Competency Evidence
It has long been the rule in Texas that incompetent evidence is legally insufficient to support a judgment, even if admitted without objection.
Thus, for example, if an eyewitness's location renders a clear view of an accident "physically impossible," it is no evidence of what occurred, even if the eyewitness thinks otherwise.
This exception frequently applies to expert testimony. When expert testimony is required, lay evidence supporting liability is legally insufficient.
After we adopted gate-keeping standards for expert testimony,
Thus, evidence that might be "some evidence" when considered in isolation is nevertheless rendered "no evidence" when contrary evidence shows it to be incompetent. Again, such evidence cannot be disregarded; it must be an exception either to the exclusive standard of review or to the definition of contrary evidence.
C. Circumstantial Equal Evidence
As noted above, Justice Calvert believed the exclusive standard applied only when a no-evidence challenge asserted the evidence was no more than a scintilla.
In claims or defenses supported only by meager circumstantial evidence, the evidence does not rise above a scintilla (and thus is legally insufficient) if jurors would have to guess whether a vital fact exists.
Justice Calvert argued there was "no necessity for the variation" because drawing an inference based on meager evidence was unreasonable whether or not the reviewing court considered the opposing inferences.
In subsequent cases this Court has continued to note rather than disregard the presence of equal but opposite inferences, often because lower courts have overlooked them. Thus, for example, one might infer from cart tracks in spilled macaroni salad that it had been on the floor a long time, but one might also infer the opposite—that a sloppy shopper recently did both.
Thus, when the circumstantial evidence of a vital fact is meager, a reviewing court must consider not just favorable but all the circumstantial evidence, and competing inferences as well.
D. Conclusive Evidence
Next, Justice Calvert noted that Texas courts conducting a no-evidence review traditionally do not disregard contrary evidence that conclusively establishes the opposite of a vital fact.
Reviewing legal sufficiency in such cases encompasses a general no-evidence review, because if some evidence supports the verdict then the contrary evidence was not "undisputed." But the review does not stop there; the evidence must also have only one logical inference. Undisputed evidence that reasonable jurors could disbelieve has two: (1) it is true, or (2) it is not.
Most often, undisputed contrary evidence becomes conclusive (and thus cannot be disregarded) when it concerns physical facts that cannot be denied. Thus, no evidence supports an impaired-access claim if it is undisputed that access remains along 90 percent of a tract's frontage.
Undisputed contrary evidence may also become conclusive when a party admits it is true. Thus, a claimant's admission that he was aware of a dangerous premises condition is conclusive evidence he needed no warning about it.
It is impossible to define precisely when undisputed evidence becomes conclusive. For example, an injured employee's return to work may prove conclusively that an injury was not total,
There is another category of conclusive evidence, in which the evidence is disputed. Undisputed evidence and conclusive evidence are not the same — undisputed evidence may or may not be conclusive, and conclusive evidence may or may not be undisputed.
Thus, for example, in Murdock v. Murdock, we found no evidence to support a verdict establishing the defendant's paternity when blood tests conclusively proved he was not the child's father.
Similarly, in Texas & New Orleans Railroad Co. v. Compton, we found no evidence that a railroad's negligence caused an automobile to slam into the sixtieth car of a slow-moving train.
Of course, there are few instances in which disputed evidence is conclusive, and many instances in which undisputed evidence is not. As our sister court has noted, testimony by a paid informant is legally sufficient to support a conviction, even if "[t]wenty nuns testify that the defendant was with them at the time, far from the scene of the crime . . . [and] [t]wenty more nuns testify that they saw the informant commit the crime."
While jurors may generally believe either sinners or saints, their discretion is limited when it is proved beyond question that an "eyewitness" was actually far away in prison or totally blind on the day of the crime.
Proper legal-sufficiency review prevents reviewing courts from substituting
E. Clear-and-Convincing Evidence
Since the time of Justice Calvert's article, new claims and burdens of proof have arisen that require additions to the four types of no-evidence review Justice Calvert considered exhaustive. Beginning with the United States Supreme Court's opinion in Jackson v. Virginia, appellate courts have recognized that, while "one slender bit of evidence" may be all a reviewing court needs to affirm a verdict based on the preponderance of the evidence, a higher burden of proof requires a higher standard of review.
Accordingly, we have held that a legal sufficiency review must consider all the evidence (not just that favoring the verdict) in reviewing cases of parental termination,
F. Consciousness Evidence
Further, we have had to particularize legal-sufficiency review in cases involving what a party knew or why it took a certain course, as they are not amenable to review under the exclusive standard.
Long before gross negligence had to meet a clear-and-convincing burden, we recognized in Burk Royalty Co. v. Walls that no-evidence review of such findings had to include "all of the surrounding facts, circumstances, and conditions, not just individual elements or facts."
For the same reasons, the exclusive standard of review has proven problematic in insurance bad-faith cases. Liability in
This problem arises in other contexts as well. In discrimination cases, discharged employees will never have to prove that the reason given for termination was a pretext if no-evidence review must disregard that reason.
This is not to say a reviewing court may credit a losing party's explanations or excuses if jurors could disregard them. For example, while an insurer's reliance on an expert report may foreclose bad faith recovery,
III. Contrary Evidence That Must Be Disregarded
As trials normally focus on issues that jurors could decide either way, reviewing
Again, we do not presume to categorize all circumstances in which contrary evidence must be disregarded; a few examples serve to demonstrate that even under the inclusive standard, viewing all the evidence in a light favorable to the verdict often requires that much of it be disregarded.
A. Credibility Evidence
Jurors are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight to give their testimony.
Most credibility questions are implicit rather than explicit in a jury's verdict. Thus, reviewing courts must assume jurors decided all of them in favor of the verdict if reasonable human beings could do so. Courts reviewing all the evidence in a light favorable to the verdict thus assume that jurors credited testimony favorable to the verdict and disbelieved testimony contrary to it.
For example, viewing the evidence in the light favorable to the verdict means that if both parties in a traffic accident testify they had the green light, an appellate court must presume the prevailing party did and the losing party did not. If the parties to an oral contract testify to conflicting terms, a reviewing court must presume the terms were those asserted by the winner. When all the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the jury verdict, some of it must be completely discounted. Though not disregarded at the outset, the end result is the same.
This has always been our practice in cases using the inclusive scope of review. Thus, we have concluded that a bailee sold cotton without the bailor's consent, despite the former's denials, because the jury verdict favored the latter.
Nor is it necessary to have testimony from both parties before jurors
Of course, "[t]he jury's decisions regarding credibility must be reasonable."
B. Conflicting Evidence
It is the province of the jury to resolve conflicts in the evidence.
Again, this has always been the case even in those cases using the inclusive scope of review. For example, in such cases we have sometimes detailed only the evidence that supported a jury's fraud finding.
In none of these cases did we state that the scope of review required us to disregard evidence contrary to the verdict; instead, we started by considering the entire record in each. But in each case we either discounted or never mentioned conflicting evidence contrary to the verdict because viewing the evidence in the light favorable to the verdict required us to do so.
Of course, it is not always clear whether evidence is conflicting. Evidence is not conflicting just because the parties cannot agree to it. For example, evidence that a hospital controlled a doctor's rotation and patient assignments raises no material conflict with evidence that a different entity controlled the details of medical treatment, as only the latter is material in a malpractice case.
But in every circumstance in which reasonable jurors could resolve conflicting evidence either way, reviewing courts must presume they did so in favor of the prevailing party, and disregard the conflicting evidence in their legal sufficiency review.
C. Conflicting Inferences
Even if evidence is undisputed, it is the province of the jury to draw from it whatever inferences they wish, so long as more than one is possible and the jury must not simply guess. Thus, in product liability cases jurors may find evidence of a defect from subsequent modifications, even if there were plenty of other reasons for the changes.
Accordingly, courts reviewing all the evidence in a light favorable to the verdict must assume jurors made all inferences in favor of their verdict if reasonable minds could, and disregard all other inferences in their legal sufficiency review.
IV. Reconciling the Standards
Having noted the dual lines of authority stating the scope of no-evidence review, and the proper application and exceptions to each, we turn to the question of which one is correct. For the reasons
A. Goals: The Standards Must Be The Same
Whether a court begins by reviewing all the evidence or disregarding part in a legal-sufficiency review, there can be no disagreement about where that review should end. If the evidence at trial would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions, then jurors must be allowed to do so.
Similarly, there is no disagreement about how a reviewing court should view evidence in the process of that review. Whether a reviewing court starts with all or only part of the record, the court must consider evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, and indulge every reasonable inference that would support it.
Given these premises, it is no coincidence that the two standards should reach the same result — indeed they must. Any scope of appellate review smaller than what reasonable jurors could believe will reverse some verdicts that are perfectly reasonable; any scope of review larger than what reasonable jurors could believe will affirm some verdicts that are not.
Further, the two must coincide if this Court is to perform its constitutional duties. Although factual sufficiency has been the sole domain of the intermediate appellate courts in Texas since 1891, our jurisdiction has always included legal sufficiency, as that is a question of law, not of fact.
This is not to say judges and lawyers will always agree whether evidence is legally
B. Other Motions: The Standards Must Be The Same
Just as the scope of no-evidence review must coincide with its goals, the scope of review should not depend upon the motion in which it is asserted. Judgment without or against a jury verdict is proper at any course of the proceedings only when the law does not allow reasonable jurors to decide otherwise. Accordingly, the test for legal sufficiency should be the same for summary judgments, directed verdicts, judgments notwithstanding the verdict, and appellate no-evidence review.
Our statements of the standard for reviewing a directed verdict present the same mixed bag found with general no-evidence review. We have most often used the exclusive standard, stating that courts reviewing directed verdicts must consider only evidence supporting the nonmovant's case and disregard all contrary evidence.
By contrast, cases concerning judgments non obstante verdicto most often utilize the inclusive scope of review. Beginning with the 1931 amendment authorizing trial judges to grant them,
The one exception in which both standards do not expressly appear is in the scope of review for summary judgments. Here, there is only one standard — a reviewing court must examine the entire record in the light most favorable to the nonmovant, indulging every reasonable inference and resolving any doubts against the motion.
In practice, however, a different scope of review applies when a summary judgment motion is filed without supporting evidence.
The standards for taking any case from the jury should be the same, no matter what motion is used. If only one standard were proper, we would not expect both to appear in cases reviewing directed verdicts, judgments notwithstanding the verdict, and summary judgments. But both do.
C. Federal Courts: The Standards Are The Same
The federal courts have had a similar split of authority between the inclusive and exclusive standards for scope of review. But no longer — the United States Supreme Court recently concluded in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. that the two tests are the same.
Under Rule 50 of the federal rules of procedure, a court should render judgment as a matter of law when "there is no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for a reasonable jury to find for that party on that issue."
We address the Supreme Court's conclusion as to the most appropriate standard below; the relevant point here is its conclusion that differences between the inclusive and exclusive standards are more semantic than real.
D. Objections: The Standards Are Not The Same
While we have used the two standards for the scope of review interchangeably for many years in many different contexts, several arguments suggest they are not the same.
First, the courts of appeals often use the two standards in illustrations of the difference between legal and factual sufficiency, with the exclusive standard tied to the former and the inclusive standard to the latter:
But there have always been exceptions to this distinction.
Second, it has been argued that the exclusive standard "is an important prophylactic" against invasion of the jury's province, as appellate judges are less likely to consider contrary evidence when they should not if the exclusive standard is used.
Second, an appellate court that begins by disregarding one party's evidence may strike many citizens as extending something less than justice for all. Concerns about open government and open courts suggest an appellate process that considers all the evidence, though deferring to the jury's verdict. While there is some dispute whether Lady Justice should wear a blindfold,
In sum, the exclusive standard is helpful in recognizing the distinctive roles of judge and jury, intermediate and supreme court. By contrast, the inclusive standard is helpful in recognizing what courts actually do, and must be seen to do. Both are important; we should avoid choosing between them if we can.
E. Conclusion: The Standards Are The Same
As both the inclusive and exclusive standards for the scope of legal-sufficiency review have a long history in Texas, as both have been used in other contexts to review matter-of-law motions, as the federal courts have decided the differences between the two are more semantic than real, and as both — properly applied — must arrive at the same result, we see no compelling reason to choose among them.
The key qualifier, of course, is "properly applied." The final test for legal sufficiency must always be whether the evidence at trial would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to reach the verdict under review. Whether a reviewing court begins by considering all the evidence or only the evidence supporting the verdict, legal-sufficiency review in the proper light must credit favorable evidence if reasonable jurors could, and disregard contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not.
While judges and lawyers often disagree about legal sufficiency in particular cases,
It is not hubris that occasionally requires an appellate court to find a jury verdict has no reasonable evidentiary basis. As Justice Frankfurter stated long ago:
V. Application to the Facts
It remains to apply the scope of review to the facts presented.
A majority of the court of appeals affirmed the verdict for the Wilsons, finding legally sufficient evidence that the City knew increased flooding on the Wilsons' property was substantially certain to occur.
Of course, the City did explain why it approved the new plan — because three sets of engineers said the omitted ditch was unnecessary — but the court felt compelled by the scope of review to disregard that evidence.
For several of the reasons stated earlier, we believe the court of appeals did not properly apply the scope of review. The critical question in this case was the City's state of mind — the Wilsons had to prove the City knew (not should have known) that flooding was substantially certain. A reviewing court cannot evaluate what the City knew by disregarding most of what it was told.
Moreover, when a case involves scientific or technical issues requiring expert advice (as this one does), jurors cannot disregard a party's reliance on experts hired for that very purpose without some evidence supplying a reasonable basis for doing so.
None of the evidence cited by the court of appeals showed the City knew more than it was told by the engineers. The Wilsons' expert testified that flooding was (in his opinion) inevitable, but not that the City knew it was inevitable. The Wilsons' expert gave no opinion on the latter point.
Second, ending a ditch at a neighbor's property line may be evidence that a defendant was substantially certain of the result in some cases, but not in the context of this one. City witnesses admitted knowing development would increase runoff at the head of this drainage system, but not flooding at its foot. Calculating the effect of detention ponds and absorption in a grassy drainage ditch forty-five feet wide and over two hundred yards long required hydrological formulas, computer models, and mathematical calculations. The omission of the ditch across the Wilsons' property obviously raised concerns that the City investigated, but was no evidence that the City knew the advice it received in response was wrong.
The Wilsons also point to a letter Sebastian's attorney wrote the City demanding indemnity in case the new ditch flooded the Wilsons. But attorneys must protect a client from potential liability whether it is
Our concurring colleagues believe reasonable jurors could nevertheless disregard what all the engineers certified because the City had a financial incentive to believe them rather than pay the Wilsons. Of course, defendants have a financial incentive to avoid paying damages in every case; if that incentive alone is some evidence of liability, then plaintiffs create enough evidence to go to the jury every time they file suit.
But more important, this ignores what the Wilsons had to prove — not that the City might have disbelieved the engineers' reports, but that it did. This requires evidence of "objective indicia of intent" showing the City knew identifiable harm was occurring or substantially certain to result.
We agree with the court of appeals that the Wilsons presented some evidence that the City damaged their property, and that in drawing up and approving drainage plans it was acting for a public purpose. The missing piece in the evidence here is proof that the City knew the plans it approved were substantially certain to increase flooding on the Wilsons' properties. While the City certainly knew that fact after the flooding started, the Wilsons never pleaded or submitted to the jury any takings theory other than the City's initial approval.
Crediting all favorable evidence that reasonable jurors could believe and disregarding all contrary evidence except that which they could not ignore, we hold there was no evidence the City's approval of the revised drainage plan was an intentional taking.
Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals' judgment against the City under article I, section 17 of the Texas Constitution. Because the court of appeals declined to address the jury's alternate verdict for the Wilsons on a claim under the Texas Water Code, we remand the case to that court to determine that issue.
Justice O'NEILL filed a concurring opinion in which Justice MEDINA joined.
Justice JOHNSON did not participate in the decision.
Justice O'NEILL, joined by Justice MEDINA, concurring.
The Court does an excellent job of explaining the appropriate scope of no-evidence review: the reviewing court "must view the evidence in the light favorable to the verdict, crediting favorable evidence if reasonable jurors could, and disregarding contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not." 168 S.W.3d at 807. I agree with this standard and join Parts I through IV of the Court's opinion. But I cannot join Part V, because the Court misapplies the standard that it so carefully
The City of Keller's Master Drainage Plan required it in part to condemn a 2.8-acre drainage easement on the Wilson property for construction of an earthen channel forty-five feet wide and five feet deep that would funnel water from the adjoining Sebastian property over the Wilson property into the Little Bear Creek Watershed. The City chose not to proceed with this portion of the plan, though, claiming reliance on engineers' assurances that the developers' installation of retention ponds on neighboring land could prevent flooding. The drainage channel that was actually built ended at the edge of the Sebastian property and funneled water directly onto the Wilsons' land, destroying eight acres of farmland worth almost $300,000. The Court holds that the jury was required to believe the City's testimony that it relied on the engineers' assurances and thus did not know flooding was substantially certain to occur, stating that when a case requires expert testimony "jurors cannot disregard a party's reliance on experts hired for that very purpose without some evidence supplying a reasonable basis for doing so." 168 S.W.3d at 829. Even if this were an appropriate review standard — which it hasn't been until today — I believe the jury had a reasonable basis upon which to disregard the City's professed reliance; the City had a financial incentive to disclaim knowledge of the flooding, and the Wilsons presented some evidence that the City had independent knowledge flooding was substantially certain to occur. In my view, the jury was the proper body to weigh the witnesses' credibility and resolve these disputed fact issues. I nevertheless agree that the City cannot be liable for a taking in this case because I believe that a city's mere act of approving a private development plan cannot constitute a taking for public use. Accordingly, I concur in the Court's judgment but not its reasoning.
I
Questions of intent are generally proved only by circumstantial evidence; as the court of appeals in this case aptly noted, "defendants will rarely admit knowing to a substantial certainty that given results would follow from their actions," and therefore the jury must be "free to discredit defendants' protestations that no harm was intended and to draw inferences necessary to establish intent." 86 S.W.3d 693, 704. I agree with the Court that the jury's ability to disbelieve the City's protestations is not itself "evidence of liability." 168 S.W.3d at 830. Instead, the jury's ability to weigh the witnesses' credibility means that the City's testimony did not conclusively establish its lack of liability. Because liability is not conclusively negated, we must examine the record to see if there is legally sufficient evidence from which the jury could infer that the City knew flooding was substantially certain to occur. I would hold that the evidence of intent that was presented in this case allowed the jury to draw such an inference.
At trial, the Wilsons presented evidence that the City had independent sources of knowledge that flooding was substantially certain to occur. First, they demonstrated that the developers' plan itself was flawed. Rather than incorporate a drainage ditch running across the Wilson property, as the City's Master Plan required, the developers' plan ended the drainage ditch abruptly at the edge of the Wilson property. The Wilsons' expert testified that the plan's implementation would necessarily "increase the volume and flow of water across the Wilson property from the rate of fifty-five cubic feet per second to ninety-three cubic feet per second." 86 S.W.3d at
While I believe there is some evidence that the City knew flooding was substantially certain to occur, there is also some evidence that it did not. City officials testified that they relied on the representations of engineers who assured them retention ponds could substitute for a drainage easement and the Wilson property would not be damaged. If the jury accepted this evidence as true, I agree that the intent element would be negated, which would preclude the City's takings liability. But I do not agree that the jury was bound to accept the City's testimony as true. The Court itself notes that jurors "may choose to believe one witness and disbelieve another," and that "[c]ourts reviewing all the evidence in a light favorable to the verdict thus assume that jurors credited testimony favorable to the verdict and disbelieved testimony contrary to it." 168S.W.3d at 819. This statement mirrors our prior jurisprudence, which has long provided that a jury "has several alternatives available when presented with conflicting evidence" because it "may believe one witness and disbelieve others," "may resolve inconsistencies in the testimony of any witness," and "may accept lay testimony over that of experts." McGalliard v. Kuhlmann, 722 S.W.2d 694, 697 (Tex.1986) (citations omitted).
As the Court itself states, jurors are required to credit undisputed testimony only when it is "clear, positive, direct, otherwise credible, free from contradictions and inconsistencies, and could have been readily controverted." 168 S.W.3d at 820. The City's testimony does not meet this standard. The City Manager did testify that the City "would not have approved the developments unless [it was] assured that the developments did not increase the velocity of water or the flow of water" onto the neighboring property. 86 S.W.3d at 706. But the Wilsons disputed whether the City's protestations were credible, pointing out that the City had a powerful incentive to profess a lack of knowledge through reliance on the engineers' assurances because it would then avoid the considerable expense of compensating the Wilsons for the property that would otherwise have been condemned under the Master Drainage Plan. See id. at 705.
Moreover, the Court's conclusion that juries cannot disregard a party's reliance on expert opinions is not consistent with our jurisprudence. The Court cites two cases for this proposition, but neither supports the Court's analysis; instead, both cases support the conclusion that the jury, as the finder of fact, should appropriately resolve factual disputes regarding a party's reliance on hired experts. Provident Am. Ins. Co. v. Castañeda, 988 S.W.2d 189, 194-95 (Tex.1998); State Farm Lloyds v. Nicolau, 951 S.W.2d 444, 448-50 (Tex.1997).
In Castañeda, a bad-faith insurance case, there was no question that the insurer had relied on an expert's assurances and thus no dispute about whether the
We reiterated this point in Nicolau, another bad-faith insurance case. There, the Court noted "we have never held that the mere fact that an insurer relies upon an expert's report to deny a claim automatically forecloses bad faith recovery as a matter of law," and again concluded that purported "reliance upon an expert's report, standing alone, will not necessarily shield" the defendant from liability. Nicolau, 951 S.W.2d at 448. The Court conceded that "[w]ere we the trier of fact in this case, we may well have concluded that [the insurer] did not act in bad faith," but concluded that the "determination is not ours to make" because "the Constitution allocates that task to the jury and prohibits us from reweighing the evidence." Id. at 450 (citing TEX. CONST. art. I, § 15, art. V, §§ 6, 10).
The same is true in this case. The jury was not required to believe that the City did not know flooding was substantially certain to occur because it relied on assurances to the contrary; as a reviewing Court, we should "assume that jurors credited testimony favorable to the verdict and disbelieved testimony contrary to it." 168 S.W.3d at 819. Such credibility determinations are uniquely suited and constitutionally committed to the fact finder. See TEX. CONST. art. I, § 15, art. V, § 6; see also Nicolau, 951 S.W.2d at 450.
II
Although I disagree with the Court's conclusion that the jury was required to credit the City's testimony, I agree with its judgment in the City's favor because, in my view, the City's mere approval of the private development plans did not result in a taking for public use, as the constitutional standard requires for a compensable taking. TEX. CONST. art. I, § 17. The City did not appropriate or even regulate the use of the Wilsons' land, nor did it design the drainage plan for the proposed subdivisions. Instead, the City merely approved subdivision plans designed by private developers, and that design included inadequate drainage capabilities. The City argues, and I agree, that its mere approval of private plans did not transfer responsibility for the content of those plans from the developers to the City. Municipalities review subdivision plats "to ensure that subdivisions are safely constructed and to promote the orderly development of the community." City of Round Rock v. Smith, 687 S.W.2d 300, 302 (Tex.1985); see TEX. LOC. GOV'T CODE § 212.002. Such a review is intended to protect the city's residents; it is not intended to transfer responsibility for a flawed subdivision design from the developers to the municipality. See, e.g., City of Round Rock, 687 S.W.2d at 302; see also Cootey v. Sun Inv., Inc., 68 Haw. 480, 718 P.2d 1086, 1091 (1986) (holding that "[t]he permit process by which the County approves or disapproves the development of a proposed subdivision reflects an effort by government to require the developer to meet his responsibilities under the subdivision rules, regulations, and laws," and that "the primary responsibility of providing an adequate and safe development rests with ... the developer, and not with the County").
Because the primary responsibility for a development's design rests with the developer,
Other courts, faced with similar facts, have also concluded that a governmental entity cannot be liable for a taking when its only action is to approve a private development plan. See Phillips v. King County, 136 Wn.2d 946, 968 P.2d 871, 879 (1998); see also Pepper v. J.J. Welcome Constr. Co., 73 Wn.App. 523, 871 P.2d 601, 606 (1994). In Phillips, the Washington Supreme Court observed that there is no public aspect to a private development and concluded that "[i]f the county or city were liable for the negligence of a private developer, based on approval under existing regulations, then the municipalities, and ultimately the taxpayers, would become the guarantors or insurers for the actions of private developers whose development damages neighboring properties." Phillips, 968 P.2d at 878. The court in Pepper similarly examined an inverse condemnation claim based upon a county's approval of private developments with defective drainage plans; it, too, concluded that the county's approval did not cause the resultant flooding and did not result in an unconstitutional taking. Pepper, 871 P.2d at 606. The court noted that the flooding was "not the result of the County appropriating or regulating their use of the land," and held that "[t]he fact that a county regulates development and requires compliance with road and drainage restrictions does not transform a private development into a public project." Id. The court concluded that because "land use regulation of [the plaintiffs'] property did not cause the damages, no inverse condemnation was involved." Id. I am persuaded by the reasoning of the courts in Phillips and Pepper, and would similarly conclude that the City's plat approval in this case did not amount to an unconstitutional taking as a matter of law.
The court of appeals in this case advanced an alternative reason for affirming the trial court's judgment, suggesting that even if the City could not be liable for merely approving a subdivision plat, it could nevertheless be held liable for failing to condemn a drainage easement across the Wilson property. 86 S.W.3d at 707. The court of appeals stated that "the City chose not to condemn any of the Wilson property," but instead "allow[ed] the water flowing from the Sebastian easement to discharge, uncontrolled, across the Wilson property." Id. As noted above, however, it was the developers' plan — not the City's actions — that allowed the water to flood the Wilson property. Because the City's action did not cause the flooding, I disagree that the City's failure to condemn an easement is relevant to takings liability. If the City were responsible for the flooding but chose not to condemn the property, it might be subject to inverse-condemnation liability. See Tarrant County Reg'l Water Dist. v. Gragg, 151 S.W.3d 546, 554 (Tex.2004) ("When the government takes private property without first paying for it, the owner may recover damages for inverse condemnation."). However, if a governmental entity's actions are not the
III
Because I believe the Court fails to give due regard to the jury's right to make credibility determinations, I cannot join Part V of the Court's opinion. But because I conclude that the City's mere act of approving a private development plan did not cause the Wilson property to be "taken, damaged or destroyed for or applied to public use," TEX. CONST. art. I, § 17, I agree that the City cannot be held liable for a taking in this case. Accordingly, I concur in the Court's judgment.
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