Texas Property Tax Case Should Have Been Dismissed, Court Says

A Houston-area municipal management district mostly convinced a Texas appeals court that a lawsuit challenging its authority to impose property taxes should have been dismissed.

APT Villa Contento LLC and APTFP LLC’s challenge became moot after the district removed their commercial properties from its boundaries and refunded the taxes they had paid, Justice Clint Morgan wrote Thursday for the Texas Court of Appeals, First District. But the owners’ claims that the exclusion violated their constitutional and statutory rights still has legs and may proceed, the court said.

The property owners argued that the Gulfton Area Municipal Management District lacked the ...