Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued – Week of June 11, 2007

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

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City of Arlington v. Centerfolds, Inc., No. 02-06-00080-CV (June 14, 2007) (Livingston, J., joined by Dauphinot and Holman, JJ.).

Held: Trial court's summary judgment reversing and remanding City's License and Amortization Appeal Board's denial of a location exemption to a nonconforming sexually oriented business was affirmed. The administrative law judge presiding over the Board hearing denied Appellees the procedural due process that they were entitled to during the hearing by refusing to allow Appellees to re-examine witnesses after individual Board members had asked questions of those witnesses, which occurred after Appellees and Appellants had finished their own respective examinations and cross-examinations of witnesses. Moreover, the inability to discern from the record whether the Board impermissibly took into account public commentary that was not available for cross-examination leads to the conclusion that the proceeding was inherently unfair to Appellees.

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Updated: 08-Jun-2007