City of Dallas v. TCI West End, Inc.

TCI West End, Inc. (defendant) demolished a building in a Dallas (plaintiff) historic district without seeking required city approval, violating a zoning ordinance; a separate city ordinance authorized civil actions to enforce various zoning violations, including one subsection covering zoning ordinances that classify a district for specific use (like a historic overlay), while other subsections explicitly limited certain enforcement actions to health-and-safety matters. The jury found for the city and awarded $750,000 in damages; the court of appeals reversed, holding the city could only civilly enforce health-and-safety zoning ordinances, and the city appealed.