The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 78, Ed. 1 Monday, April 20, 1981 Page: 1 of 20
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A-
American
The
T
A
y
Allen, Texas
256
Monday, April 20, 1981
Vol. 11, No. 78
V
City wants control
over farmers market
codes) would be enforced.”
west side sewer line built by
range plans with the unitary
site is sold.
33333 •
2230006888
3 hours of hammering out con- permanent site. “We just want market) on 121 and 89.”
Staff Photo by Jack Stein
Piles of mail
One of the stipulations made comes).
system instead of the portable but that land is near recently an-
Death of a child
Parents unite to change Wrongful Death Act
82: 3*2
HOWEVER,
THE
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2
Don and Mary Scruggs
k
1
en
AWARD WINNER
V
City hall concept
drawings approved
would also like to see the com-
missioners agree to move the
camp site (when development
ed damages for grief, mental
anguish, or the loss of compa-
The fourth stipulation was to
have a “semi-permanent” sewer
spaces.
Landscaping is planned, “and
we will modernize,” Thornton
said.
The original plan was to place
the market on private property
Vivian Tobaben had her window at the Allen
Post Office full of envelopes Wednesday after
many local citizens apparently scrambled to beat
the Tuesday midnight deadline for filing income
tax forms. Virtually all of the envelopes shown
here were mailed in the final hours before the
deadline.
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
andaaaed& -
8
cems about the market to serve
Collin County.
Commissioners Richard May
and Howard Thornton told the
council several times Allen was
their last hope to keep the
market issue “from being dead.”
nionship, love and affection.
Under the statute, a child in
Texas has virtually no value to
his parents.
THAT IS THE opinion of not
just parents who, like the
Scruggs, have faced the grim
reality of the law. It also is the
opinion of justices of the Texas
Supreme Court. In a 1980 deci-
sion, Justice Charles W. Barrow
wrote:
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San Marcus Baptist Academy
ventured to the McKinney State
Park, located just outside
Austin, for an end-of-school
outing. Hiking, bike-riding and
swimming, under the supervi-
sion of San Marcus teachers,
were to be the order of the day.
But it had been a wet spring in
the Texas Hill Country; the
creek running through the park
was about 7 feet higher than
usual. Visitors were explicitly
warned by park officials not to
. risk the deep, rushing waters.
Nevertheless, Donald Scruggs’
group chose to cross the creek to
get to a swimming hole on the
.. other side.
Donald Scruggs never made
it. The last one to tread the
dangerous waters, the boy was
The city of Allen wants to
build a 12,800 square foot, city
hall annex and service center on
by the council gives Allen the
right to renew its support on an
annual basis. Prior to the vote
cases like their own, more was
needed than understanding
friends to talk to.
“WHEN A CHILD dies of un-
natural causes, the parents have
this need to fight,” she said.
“Parents whose children die of
natural causes don’t share this
need.
“I was angry. I wanted to do
something.”
By chance, at the cemetery
where her son is buried, Mary
met another mother whose child
also died a violent death. “Right
then,” she said, “I decided to
find out if the law had ever been
challenged.”
It had. In 4 straight sessions
of the Texas Legislature, bills
had been introduced to amend
the Wrongful Death Act so that
surviving parents may in some
Way recover damages if their
child dies through carelessness
or negligence. And 4 straight
times, the bill was defeated,
either by a governor’s veto or by
never making it out of commit-
tee.
$48,244.28, is a 26 percent in-
crease over the first 4 months of
1980.
Nearly 1,000 Texas cities will
receive rebate checks totaling
$23.8 million. That includes $5.5
million of Houston’s rebate
check.
Texas’ largest city owed the
state $287,699 in traffic fines
discovered after an audit of in-
terstate highway traffic fines
from 1975 through 1980.
State Comptroller Bob
Bullock said he notified
Houston last month that he
planned to withhold city
payments if the debt was not
cleared. The city didn’t
acknowledge the bill owed the
state until Bullock threatened to
withhold the rebate check for
April.
Fairview showed the largest
increase of Collin County cities,
a 135 percent increase over the
same period last year.
That increase is significant
because the city did not receive
a rebate check this month.
In 1981 Fairview has already
received a $2,218.77 compared
to $941.88 in 1980.
Concept drawings were ap-
proved in the council meeting
Thursday for the building and
the construction drawings were
new building will have a shop
(vehicle repair) area, storage and
a council chamber which can be
expanded to 900 square feet.
In other action, the council:
r- Approved a special excep-
tion to locate 2 subdivision
advertising signs in the Foun-
tain Park East development.
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388-
i g
the 35 acres recently purchased
south of the present city hall.
stagecoaches, steamboats and ees
child labor.
The attorney told the Scruggs 19
they were fortunate to get the
3
requested.
All of the city offices now in ci- - Approved allowing the city
ty hall would be moved to the manager to execute a sewer line
new structure. It will be the first easement contract.
of a complex of buildings plann- ‘ v Approved revisions to the
ed for the site. tax rolls.
The present city hall would be Set date for May 7 to hold a
used for the central fire station public hearing to extend a zon-
according to city manager Jon ing exception at 203E. Main.
McCarty. • Reviewed minutes of the
In addition to city offices the library board.
Thornton told the council if road system are that the growth
development comes in the area in Allen will preclude use of the
he foresees selling the land and bam in Allen,” Thornton said,
moving the farmers’ market to a “We would like to have this (the
day also asks for voluntary an-
nexatioi airto the city. The pro-
posed location is on the 2.78 acre
county bam site on FM 2170
west of Highway 75. The bam is
now in Alien’s extraterritorial
jurisdiction.
But Commissioner Thornton
told the council “We will not put
it out there if you don’t want it.”
The resolution also proposes a
special exception for the
building so the subdivision or-
dinance requiring an 8-inch
water line could be waived. But
as Glen Andrew said when he
made the motion, “all human
safety factors (such as electrical
Scruggs’ attorney advised them
to take the offer because even if
the academy was judged
negligent in causing their son’s
death, they risked being award-
ed only half that amount.
What happened was that the
Scruggs had run up against a
law called the Texas Wrongful
Death Act, an archaic statute
written in the days of
saa23 wo-
t-.
33332322 3x. - 82:
$30,000, because under the j
Wrongful Death Act, parents of i.
children who have died through ", —
the careless or negligent acts of9
another person cannot be award- -
aTl
--r
“It is well established that tributions after the child reach-
under the Texas Wrongful ed majority. No recovery may be
Death Act a surviving parent is had for mental anguish, grief,
entitled to recover as actual bereavement, or loss of compa-
damages for the death of a child nionship.”
only the pecuniary (monetary) In. a concurring opinion,
value of a child’s services until Justice Franklin Spears said
he reaches (age 18), less the cost that “...almost all modern
and expense of the child’s care, children are worthless in the
support, education and eyes of the law. In fact, if the
maintenance, and such as might rule were literally followed, the
be reasonably expected as con- average child would have a
____________ negative worth.”
Lucas received a rebate check
of $721.09 this month which
puts that city only 67 percent
behind the 1980 figure. Lucas
has received $934.38 for 1981
compared to $2,904.32 in 1980.
Plano received the county’s
largest rebate check, $84,503.64.
Although that is nearly $16,000
less than April, 1980, total 1981
receipts are 39 percent ahead of
the first 4 months of 1980.
McKinney’s check of
$25,378.81 brings that city’s
total to1 $228,727.31, a 20 per-
cent gain over the 1980 figure of
$189,824.95.
Commissioner Richard May said restrooms proposed by Thom- nexed residential property.
he thought a one-year renewal ton and May. Mayor Pierson, who also
would “kill the issue.” But after The council suggested a septic . voted against the resolution,
the meeting he was optimistic system, a mini-treatment plant said he thought development
the commissioners will give the or an agreement to hook into the
go-ahead.
He predicts an opening in
June or July if commissioners
approve the construction of the
$50,000 structure in light of
Allen’s requests.
The resolution passed Thurs-
8 80
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by David Engelmann swept under by the rushing cur-
Special To The American rent. His body was not found un-
The story of Don and Mary til 4 days later.
Scruggs, formerly of Allen is a month after the tragedy,
not, unfortunately, an unusual Don and Mary Scruggs filed a
one. But behind its tragic com- $153,000 lawsuit against the
monness lies another story, one academy, claiming school of-
that is as appalling as it is ficials were negligent in allowing
grievous, one that most people their son to venture into the
never realize exists—until they creek above his protests, and
too join the Scruggs and after park officials had warned
countless others as parents who the group of the danger.
have lost a child. A YEAR LATER, the
On May 5, 1979, Donald Scruggs settled out of court for
Scruggs, Don and Mary’s the academy’s offer of $30,000.
11-year-old son, and a group of In an era of multi-million dollar
other fifth-grade students at the lawsuits and settlements, the
This would also give the city Allen Management Company on
power to enforce law at the the west side by private proper-
market. ty owners.
Another request was for the May and Thornton both
county to agree to move the stressed the temporary nature
building within 3 months if the of their proposal. “Our long
Rep. Ralph Hall to
hold town meeting
Congressman Ralph Hall will hold a town meeting in Allen
Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in Rountree Elementary School.
The public is invited to attend according to Representive
Hall.
“I hope I can visit with as many people as possible to have
their views and ideas on legislation and issues that will be
before the Congress this session,” he says.
“If a Congressman is to be effective, he must have the views
of his constituents, so if you have a question or a solution re-
qarding any problem with the Federal government, come by
and share this with your Congressman, he is there to serve
you.”
Hall’s Allen visit is last on a series of stops he will make
throughout Collin County Wednesday.
Fairview Mayor Peter Haas Will attend the McKinney
meeting at 3:30 p.m. at McKinney City Hall.
to see if it will work (in Collin Thornton and May said the
County),” he said. market will be a 50x100’ Delta
Richard Chumbley, who voted type steel building with 20 stalls
against the resolution, said he' and approximately 84 parking
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HE WENT ON to note that,
as incredible as it sounds,
“strict adherence to the
(monetary) loss rule would or-
dinarily lead to the (person
responsible for the child’s death)
being rewarded for having saved
the parents the cost and expense
of rearing a child.”
It is statements like that that
spurred Mary Scruggs to set out
to change the law.
“I thought that when it (the
settlement against the academy)
was over, I would feel better,”
she said. “But I didn’t. I felt
angry. I couldn’t believe the law
was like that.”
After their son’s death, Don
and Mary Scruggs ‘went to
meetings of Compassionate
Friends Inc., a statewide
organization designed to help
parents who have lost a child
cope with their grief. But the
couple soon realized that, in
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WRONGFUL Death Act had
never been challenged by
parents of deceased
children—until now.
In Compassionate Friends,
the Scruggs found another cou-
ple also frustrated by the law.
See PARENTS Page 8
Sales tax ■
increases ■
26 percent ■
■ —
Allen will be receiving a check I
of $5,844.51 for the month of A w
April as part of the rebates to "
Texas cities of the one-percent ! |
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city sales tax.
The total for this month br- |
ings Allen’s 1981 total to
by Sherry Johnson
Editor of The American
The answer is yes to a
farmers’ market in Allen but on-
ly if the city has some control.
This was the message Thurs-
day as a resolution supporting
the county facility narrowly won
the support of the city council.
The council included 4 re-
quirements in its support.
The 4-3 vote came after almost
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Johnson, Sherry. The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 11, No. 78, Ed. 1 Monday, April 20, 1981, newspaper, April 20, 1981; Allen, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1423304/m1/1/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Allen Public Library.