Easement by Estoppel in 5 Cases

Podcast Link: To learn more about this topic, join the conversation by listening to my Podcast Episode.  Introduction: These five Texas court cases provide insights into different types of easements, requirements for their establishment, and relevant legal arguments....

Dismissal of Landowner Challenge to City Water Connection Requirement Upheld

Many Texas cities have enacted ordinances that require landowners to connect to public water supply systems. These ordinances regulate land use, and generally prohibit landowners within the City from drilling water wells when municipal or public water supply is...

Texas HOA Can’t Totally Prohibit Political Signs

It's election season, which means the airways, radio waves, social media and corners are filled with campaign ads urging you to vote for this political candidate or that proposition.  If you have made any political donations in the past, chances are your text messages...

Nasty Real Estate Broker Agent Breakups Bad for Almost Everyone

Broker-Agent Breakups Happen: Real Estate Sales Agents Don't (and Maybe Shouldn't) Have Team Loyalty  In recent years, relationships between real estate brokers and agents seem to have gone the way of those between star athletes and their sports teams. The days when...
Easement by Estoppel in 5 Cases

Easement by Estoppel in 5 Cases

Podcast Link: To learn more about this topic, join the conversation by listening to my Podcast Episode.  Introduction: These five Texas court cases provide insights into different types of easements, requirements for their establishment, and relevant legal arguments....

read more
Texas HOA Can’t Totally Prohibit Political Signs

Texas HOA Can’t Totally Prohibit Political Signs

It's election season, which means the airways, radio waves, social media and corners are filled with campaign ads urging you to vote for this political candidate or that proposition.  If you have made any political donations in the past, chances are your text messages...

read more
Obtaining Case Dismissal on Limitations Grounds

Obtaining Case Dismissal on Limitations Grounds

What is Limitations? "Limitations" refers to the period within which a Plaintiff must file a lawsuit. Failure to file suit within the applicable limitations period can render the suit time-barred. The existence of limitations periods is grounded in the notion that...

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Difference between Public and Private Nusiance

Difference between Public and Private Nusiance

WHAT IS A "NUISANCE" IN LEGAL TERMS? Under Texas law, a “nuisance” is a condition that substantially interferes with the use and enjoyment of land by causing unreasonable discomfort or annoyance to a person of ordinary sensibilities attempting to use and enjoy it....

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Jury Questions for Private Nuisance Claim in Texas

Jury Questions for Private Nuisance Claim in Texas

What is a Private Nuisance? In private nuisance, a defendant’s conduct substantially interferes with the use and enjoyment of real property owned by an individual or small group of persons. Private nuisance "may, for example, cause physical damage to the plaintiffs’...

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5 Reasons Real Estate Mediations Fail

5 Reasons Real Estate Mediations Fail

These days, Mediation is ubiquitous in civil lawsuits. The local court rules of most Texas counties require mediation, and the state's policy has been made clear by statute: Sec. 154.002. POLICY. It is the policy of this state to encourage the peaceable resolution of...

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Proof for Prescriptive Easement Same as Adverse Possession

Proof for Prescriptive Easement Same as Adverse Possession

HOW IS AN  EASEMENT BY PRESCRIPTION ACQUIRED? A person can acquire a prescriptive easement if he uses someone else’s land in a manner that is adverse, open and notorious, continuous, and exclusive for the requisite ten-year period. Brooks v. Jones, 578 S.W.2d 669, 673...

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Railroad Company’s Duty to Warn at Crossings

Railroad Company’s Duty to Warn at Crossings

RAILROAD COMPANY's DUTY TO WARN Railroad companies have a general legal duty “to give adequate warning of approaching trains, given whatever obstructions or other conditions exist.” Mo. Pac. R.R. Co. v. Limmer, 299 S.W.3d 78, 92 (Tex.2009). Because “every railroad...

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Jury Questions for Trespass Claim in Texas

Jury Questions for Trespass Claim in Texas

Why Study the Jury Charge? Before taking a case to trial, or even filing a lawsuit, it is critically important to understand the specific questions that jurors will be asked to answer. The juror's answers to the questions related to a specific claim or cause of action...

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JURY CHARGE – Presenting Issues to the Jury for Decision

JURY CHARGE – Presenting Issues to the Jury for Decision

START FROM THE END, BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGIN My next several posts to this BLOG will explore the substance of the specific Questions that Texas juries are asked to decide in real estate lawsuits. Juries answer these questions at the very end of a civil lawsuit - after...

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Res Judicata Bars Multiple Suits Over Same Subject Matter

Res Judicata Bars Multiple Suits Over Same Subject Matter

OBJECTIVE OF RES JUDICATA OR CLAIM PRECLUSION “The doctrine of res judicata, also known as claim preclusion, bars lawsuits that arise out of the same subject matter as a prior suit when, with the use of diligence, that subject matter could have been litigated in the...

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