Texas Water Code 57.270 – Appeal of Decree of the Commissioners of Appraisement
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(a) A person or the board may appeal from the decree of the commissioners of appraisement assessing or refusing to assess damages or fixing the value of a right-of-way.
(b) The only questions considered on an appeal are:
(1) whether or not just compensation has been allowed for property taken;
(2) whether or not proper damages have been allowed for property injured; or
(3) whether or not in fact property has been damaged.
Terms Used In Texas Water Code 57.270
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
- Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
- Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
- Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
(c) The appeal shall be taken to the district court of the county of jurisdiction in the manner, under the conditions, and within the time provided by Sections 57.020-57.025 of this code for appeals from judgments of the commissioners court refusing to create the district.
(d) The district court has jurisdiction of the appeal regardless of the amount claimed.
(e) The secretary in not less than five days after the appeal is filed shall send to the district clerk:
(1) the engineer’s report or a certified copy of it;
(2) a transcript of that part of the commissioners of appraisement’s report affecting the lands concerned in the appeal;
(3) a transcript of the claim for damages; and
(4) a transcript of the action of the commissioners of appraisement on the claim.
(f) Appeals may be consolidated in the district court.
(g) The trial in the district court shall be de novo, and the proceedings shall be in accordance with the laws of this state for damage suits.
(h) The claimant is considered the plaintiff, and the district, the defendant, and no further pleadings are required.
(i) Appeals may be taken from the judgment of the district court as in other civil cases.
(j) No appeal may delay carrying out the engineer’s report, and if the board pays to the district clerk the amount of damages awarded by the commissioners of appraisement to a claimant who is appealing their decree, and if the board makes bond to pay to the claimant any additional amount that he may be awarded on his appeal, title to the condemned property that is the subject of the appeal vests in the district, and the district is entitled to immediate possession.
(k) No person may claim damages against the district, its board, officers, or agents because of the prosecution of the engineer’s report if he owns or has an interest in land in a county in which notice has been published of the hearing before the commissioners of appraisement, and he has failed to file a claim for damages or an objection to the damages assessed by the commissioners of appraisement against his land, or if he has filed a claim or objection but has failed to appeal from an adverse ruling on his claim or objection.