John Johnson Story

 

I have heard the story of the Johnson family of Fulton over the years and their ordeal with the Navigation District, but never much of the details - until now.   I will try to do their story justice, but there has been so much injustice I doubt I will be very successful.

 

The Johnson family roots in the South Texas area have been established since 1845.  John’s Great Grandmother was Katherine Simpson, daughter of John Simpson.  She first married Frank Casterline and had five children.  Her second husband was William Bourke Johnson.  Kate and WB had a son named John William (Bill) Johnson, John Johnson’s Grandfather.  Bill Johnson inherited the property upon WB’s death.  Bill and his wife Alice Elizabeth Carleton Johnson had 3 children, one of which was William Edward (Eddie) Johnson, John’s father. 

 

Eddie married Bobbie Jean Townsend and together they had 2 children, John and Deborah.  In March of 1973, Bill and Eddie took their small private plane for a short flight during which they encountered a thick fog bank.  Attempting to return to Aransas County airport, they overshot the runway, crashed the plane into the oak trees and were killed.  John was 8 years old at the time and his sister was 9.  John’s parents had divorced and his father had just gained custody.  Local attorney Lola L Bonner handled the very complicated estate.  John and Deborah inherited the marina, but as young minors they had no ability to manage the marina.  John’s mother and step-father managed the marina and bait stand from that point acting as guardians for John and Deborah.

 

In the 1980s, the marina was leased to a variety of seafood companies, oyster boats and shrimp boats.  One of the lessees assigned their lease to Alby’s Seafood.  The District demanded that the Johnson’s repair and make improvements to their bulkhead and dockage after a major hurricane had caused 90’ of bulkhead to fail. Within a short time after requesting this action from the Johnsons, the Navigation District stated that the property belonged to them based on a patent line.  The Navigation went ahead and made bulkhead and utility improvements inside the Fulton Beach Marina.  ACND put themselves in the docking business, collecting rent from Johnson’s tenant. ACND eventually catered to Alby’s Seafood by leasing public docks at the north end of Fulton Harbor for private enterprise causing Alby’s to break their lease with Johnsons.

 

First, ACND stole their business and then they tried to steal the property.

 

John filed suit against the District in 2001 claiming the ACND had illegally taken their property.  The District filed a counter suit claiming the Johnson’s only held a 99 year lease.  The Judge in the case ruled in favor of the Johnsons for the boundary claim, but found for the District with respect to the 99 year lease.  If the reader is scratching his or her head at this point, you are not alone.  The Johnson’s appealed the verdict to the 13^th Court of Appeals and won on both counts.  But as big corporations and government agencies are prone to do, the District decided to take their case to the Texas Supreme Court in an effort to drive the Johnsons into bankruptcy over the massive legal costs which at this point had reached over $100,000.  In 2008, the Texas Supreme Court found that the lower court ruling was valid (without hearing arguments) and sent it back to the lower court.  The District reportedly spent over $1,000,000 in legal fees and costs, most of which was from insurance money.  The rest was taxpayer funds.

 

Was it over when the Supreme Court ruled for the Johnsons after years of defending their claim to ownership?  Did the Supreme Court ruling send the District packing?  Of course not.  The Johnsons expected to recover a portion of their legal expenses, but the District claimed Sovereign Immunity.  Sovereign immunity does not apply to local government entities such as the District.  The harassment continues.  For years, Captain Tommy Moore the At Large Commissioner and the only Commissioner on the Court in 2008 would follow John with his boat the Skimmer when he took his shrimp boat out to catch shrimp and croaker.  Tommy claimed he was allowing his customers to see dolphins up close – what he was really doing was disrupting John’s livelihood.  Only a warning from the U.S. Coast Guard brought the years-on practice to a close.  However, Tommy still does this to other commercial fishing vessels.

 

And it continued in other ways.  Moore flashed vulgar signs at John and children when he was asked not to block the property. Commissioner Moore deliberately park his truck and boat blocking John and his customer’s access to and from his marina.  I have pictures taken by John’s wife, Rebecca, that prove it.  Taunts of “call the police and report me; have me towed” were comments made by Moore when John objected.  John called the Fulton Police Chief on multiple occasions to no avail.  Moore was either gone or agreed to leave when the Chief showed up.

 

Tommy uses his elected position to defend his personal grudge against the Johnson family.   John thought he was through being harassed, but it continues still.  The most recent District action was to erect a 6’ hurricane fence approximately 2 feet south of Johnson’s wooden fence which is on his own property.  The only function of the fence is to keep John from accessing his property through his gate.

 

For 49 years, John Johnson has endured the threats, legal actions, theft of his business by the district and outright harassment.  Will it ever stop?  As far as I am concerned, not until Tommy Moore is no longer a Navigation District Commissioner.  It is time to make it stop.