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...
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...
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...
WHAT IS A LETTER OF INTENT? A letter of intent (also known as an "LOI") is a writing (often a simple letter) designed to initiate a business or real estate transaction by summarizing or outlining the parties' intended major deal pointst. LOIs reflect a preliminary...
One of the elements of a fraud claim is reliance upon a misrepresentation made by the Defendant. This means that a Plaintiff must not only prove that the Defendant knowingly made a false representation of material fact, but also demonstrate that the Plaintiff in some...
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...
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....
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’...
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...
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...
Texas law recognizes multiple types of easements. One of the most nebulous of these is an easement by estoppel. Easements by estoppel are unique because they are implied (not affirmatively granted in writing or even verbally) by actions ("acquiescing behavior") --...
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...
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...
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...
PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY INJURY - WHY IT MATTERS Injury resulting from damage to land is characterized as Permanent or Temporary. This is true whether the injured party asserts a claim for nuisance, trespass or water diversion/flooding under Section 11.086 of the Texas...
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...
REQUIRED PROOF FOR ADVERSE POSSESSION - TITLE THROUGH PASSAGE OF TIME & OTHER PROOF Under Texas law, adverse possession requires “an actual and visible appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is...
REQUIRED SHOWING FOR TRESPASS CLAIM In order to prevail on a claim for Trespass to real property, a Plaintiff must show an unauthorized physical entry onto his property by some person or thing. Warwick Towers Council of Co-Owners v. Park Warwick, L.P., 298 S.W.3d...
Boundary disputes are common. So too, are survey discrepancies and disagreements among surveyors as to the precise location of property boundaries. SURVEYS NOT ALWAYS RELIABLE OR UNDERSTANDABLE Surveying is as much an "art" as it is a science. Surveying has...
Texas law protects an owner of land from damage -- even insignificant damage -- caused by runoff of water from a neighboring property. Both compensatory damages and injunctive relief are available. A landowner is not, however, entitled to relief simply because...
ARE MULTIPLE LAWSUITS BETTER THAN ONE? An important component of litigation strategy in disputes involving multiple parties or multiple claims involves deciding which claims and parties to include in a lawsuit. By extension, that strategy decision includes...