HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - John Gannon, Inc. (JGI) filed a federal complaint on September 30 in the Southern District of Texas against the Texas Department of Transportation.
According to the complaint, the State regulates billboards and the display of outdoor advertising adjacent to regulated highways pursuant to Chapter 391 of the Texas Transportation Code. The Act and Regulations grant TxDOT the authority to cancel commercial sign permits only in very specific instances for limited, specified violations of TxDOT’s Regulations, the suit says.
TxDOT mailed JGI Notices of Cancellation for JGI’s State-issued commercial sign permits, which JGI contested. While proceedings were going on, JGI was issued notices of penalties totaling nearly $700,000, but the notices did not include how those totals were calculated, the suit says.
JGI seeks a determination regarding the validity or applicability of the rules TxDOT applied in its attempts to cancel permits or impose administrative penalties. JGI claims that TxDOT and the commission unlawfully and unconstitutionally imposed exorbitant administrative penalties.
JGI is represented by Michael C. Falick.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas case number 4:21-cv-03190