Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of October 1, 2018.

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.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

City of Fort Worth v. Rylie, No. 02-17-00185-CV (Oct. 4, 2018) (Kerr, J., joined by Walker and Gabriel, JJ.).

Held: Occupations code chapter 2153, which regulates “skill or pleasure coin-operated machines,” applies to appellees’ electronic gaming machines (commonly known as “eight-liners”). But chapter 2153’s stated purpose—“to provide comprehensive and uniform state-wide regulation of . . . skill or pleasure coin-operated machines”—does not indicate the Legislature’s clear and unmistakable intent to wholly preempt local regulation of such machines. Chapter 2153 therefore does not completely preempt Fort Worth’s city ordinances regulating eight-liners and game rooms. Unlike chapter 2153, however, the alcoholic-beverage code makes clear that unless it specifically provides otherwise, the code exclusively governs the regulation of alcoholic beverages. Because the portions of the ordinances that attempt to regulate the sale, purchase, possession, and consumption of alcoholic beverages in game rooms go beyond the limited local regulation allowed by the code, those portions of the ordinances conflict with, and are therefore preempted by, the alcoholic beverage code.