Stephens v. City of Houston

Appellant, Bartholomew U. Stephens, challenges the trial court’s order that granted a plea to the jurisdiction in favor of appellees, the City of Houston, Mayor Bill White, Toni Lawrence, Carol Galloway, Mark Goldberg, Ada Edwards, Addie Wiseman, M.J. Khan, Pam Holm, Carol Alvarado, Gordon Quan, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, Ronald Green and the City of Houston Civil Service Commission for Municipal Employees (collectively referred to as “the City”). In four issues on appeal, Stephens argues that (1) the City Council and government of the City of Houston ignored the limitations and delegations in the Charter of the City of Houston; (2) the City of Houston ignored a rejection of a Charter change by the voters by adopting an ordinance that contradicts the existing Charter language; (3) a department head in the Houston City government improperly terminated a city employee because authority to terminate rests exclusively with the City’s Mayor; and (4) Texas courts may properly review the termination of an employee of a municipality governed by a City Charter.

The City responds that the district court properly granted its plea to the jurisdiction because there was no live controversy between the parties when Stephens sued, Stephens lacked standing to bring this action under the Declaratory Judgment Act, and therefore, the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over this suit.