§ 37.004.Subject Matter of Relief

The most used provision in the chapter, and subsection (c) is a deliberate exception to other law.

A person interested under a deed, will, written contract, or other writings constituting a contract, or whose rights, status, or other legal relations are affected by a statute, municipal ordinance, contract, or franchise, may have determined any question of construction or validity and obtain a declaration of rights, status, or other legal relations.

Two routes in, and they are different. The first is for a person interested under an instrument; the second for a person whose legal relations are affected by one of the listed sources.

The second is the wider. A person need not be a party to a statute or ordinance to be affected by it, which is how challenges to municipal regulation and to statutes proceed under this chapter.

Two questions may be put: construction and validity. What the instrument means, and whether it is good.

A contract may be construed either before or after there has been a breach.

That short sentence is the practical heart of the section. Parties in a live disagreement about what a contract requires can have it settled before either performs in a way that turns out to be wrong.

Subsection (c) is a targeted exception: notwithstanding Section 22.001, Property Code, a declaration may be obtained where the sole issue concerning title to real property is the determination of the proper boundary line between adjoining properties.

The provision referred to is the trespass to try title statute, which makes that action the exclusive method for determining title to land.

The exception is confined and sensible. A pure boundary dispute is a contest over where the line runs rather than over who owns the land, and requiring a trespass to try title action for it imposed a formal pleading regime on a surveying question.