Texas Supreme Court - jeopardizes public access to beaches

[silverlib]

http://www.caller.com/news/2010/dec/19/court-poses-a-real-danger-to-texas-beach/

This is an article from the Corpus Christi Caller Times, sent to me from a friend in Mathis, Texas -

[sonias]

1. No suprise unfortunately

The Texas Supremes are all about business and protecting contributors - they could give a rat's ass about the average Texan. We're all just tools to them. :(

They always vote for business and rich interests.

:hi: silverlib

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2. I tried to track down the writer of this article

But I was never able to find him on UT fac. Anybody got a lead to him.
Lynn Biais UT Law

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3. J. David Breemer: Texas all wet in its beach-case arguments

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/viewpoints/stories/DN-breemer_23edi.State.Edition1.1a8676a.html

Your thoughts??

[sonias]

4. Good read

Not sure I understand all the nuances but he seems to make sense if indeed that's all the case did. He was the attorney for the land owner against the state.

The decision rightly rejected this "rolling easement" theory, but it did not strike down the Open Beaches Act or end public beach access. Indeed, the decision ratified public ownership of the beach to the high tide line and concluded that the state may prove beach easements on private dry sand areas, and, when it does (as it has along Galveston Island), that these easements may move inland with normal, gradual erosion.

The court also left many options if the state wants still more land. It can prove additional easement areas. Or it can reach consensual agreements with property owners for public access. It can buy easements or tracts to create beach parks. It can use its police powers to regulate new coastal building.

All the state cannot do is decree, after a hurricane, that large areas of historically private land instantly became new publicly owned beaches simply because they were denuded of surface vegetation.

When the government wants to create a public park, it is the traditional and constitutional practice to buy the land, get the owner to dedicate it or prove that there is some kind of historic public pathway. Coastal property owners are not asking for special treatment. They simply want the same rights as any other class of dry land property owners.

:shrug:

[sonias]

5. The DMN article has her e-mail

DMN 12/16/10
Lynn Blais has taught property law at the University of Texas School of Law for 20 years. She submitted a brief in support of the state in Severance. Her e-mail address is [e-mail]

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6. Thanks again sonias

I am stirring the pot

[sonias]

7. I see, I see

:)

You muckraker you!

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8. Yep

Whizzed in their cheerios. Thanks for your help with locating Lynn.

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9. Harris County Attorney Files Court Brief In Support Of Open Beaches Act

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan yesterday filed a legal brief on behalf of Harris County and the Texas Conference of Urban Counties in the Texas Supreme Court in support of the State of Texas seeking to preserve access to Texas beaches.


COURT BRIEF FILED – Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan yesterday filed a court brief in support of the effort to get the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision on the Texas Open Beaches Act.
Ryan, acting on behalf of Harris County and the Harris County Commissioners Court, joined Texas General Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson and others urging the high court to reconsider its recent ruling that overturned the historic right of open access to beaches along the Texas coast.

The original case challenging Texas’ Open Beaches Act was filed by California lawyer Carol Severance. Severance purchased a pair of homes on West Galveston beach as rental properties. Severance, assisted by a California legal foundation, sued the state after she refused to remove obstructions to the access easement as required by the open beaches act.

The act was codified in 1959, but the open beach concept had been asserted since the days of the Texas Republic.

>>>>
http://instantnewskaty.com/2010/12/29/18288

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10. COUNTY ATTORNEY JOINS FIGHT FOR TEXAS OPEN BEACHES!

COUNTY ATTORNEY JOINS FIGHT FOR TEXAS OPEN BEACHES!







Today Harris County Commissioners Court joined County Attorney Vince Ryan in the legal battle being waged by the State of Texas to preserve public access to Texas beaches. County Attorney Vince Ryan will file a “friend of the court” or amicus brief urging the Texas Supreme Court reconsider a ruling it issued overturning the historic right of Texans to access beaches along the Gulf of Mexico and in particular West Galveston Island.

Commissioners Court adopted an order authorizing Harris County to be a part of legal efforts to reverse the ruling.

California resident Carol Severance, who had acquired two lots on West Galveston Beach as rental properties, originally filed the case in federal court. Despite receiving numerous written warnings before buying about the State’s open beaches policy, she bought anyway and then sought to have the law overturned. Severance, assisted by a California legal foundation, sued the State and refused to remove obstructions to the access easement as required by provisions of the Texas Open Beaches Act in effect since 1959. The Court’s ruling of November 5th sides with Severance and would allow her to barricade the beach unless the State compensates her for access to the water.


>>>>>
http://www.theanahuacprogress.com/articles/2010/12/29/news/news21.txt

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11. Cheers To our.... We the people Texas Constitution supporters

:evilgrin:
More ChickenHawks developers coming out of the rethuglick of Kalifonia and bringing their neocon lawyer with them.

"Remember the Alamo" :evilgrin:
We need another Battle of San Jacinto....

http://www.hcnonline.com/friendswood/news/article_a49954c0-0a0c-58bf-ad29-01c9a91fe907.html:evilgrin:

[sonias]

12. Even the Rs are on the side of the state on this one (i.e. against Severance)

Like Patterson and Ryan, how can the tea-baggers be for the CA landowner & lawyer? Seems that this must be a slippery slope kind of thing, where if you concede the right to public access to the beach due to "nature" then you would have all kinds of private property cases that would claim the whole beach was private.

And to top it off, as someone else pointed out - these private home owners would then still demand that the state "replenish", rebuild or renew the condition of the beaches after each and every storm. They want to live on the beach, all nice and secluded from the masses yet they want the masses to pay for the upkeep of their beach front view.

It's the same kind of tea-bag thinking about roads. Teabags believe that the roads pay for themselves "magically" without raising revenue to build them and maintain them, and if you dare try to raise gas taxes to meet the road demand - then you're a socialist. Nevermind the whole concept of roads for the public good is classic socialism. Just like their medicare they don't want to give up either.

:shrug:

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13. Public agencies, activists continue to join fight on beach-access ruling

Text
The decision created private beaches on Galveston island and the frequency of storms eventually will render all public beaches private, O'Rourke says.

The vagueness of the decision allows beachfront property owners to point to the last storm and declare their beach private, Blackburn says in his brief.

The vagueness could allow property owners to claim that beaches where natural erosion is 10 or 20 feet a year may be deemed private even without a storm, Blackburn said. Or they could claim that erosive tides or tropical storms render their beaches private, his brief says.

"With the stroke of a pen, a divided court has effectively eliminated the public's rights on the dry beach," the brief says. The Supreme Court decision "suffers from any number of serious flaws leading to an incoherent legal doctrine and devastating consequences for the state and its citizenry," it says.
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/defaul...p#ixzz19jUbBwtL

Text
A coalition including governments and environmental groups is urging the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider an opinion that undermined a long held public claim on Gulf beaches.

Harris County attorney Vince Ryan filed a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday on behalf of Harris County and the Texas Conference of Urban Counties.

The brief supports a motion by the Texas attorney general asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider a recent opinion that put into question fundamental parts of the Texas Open Beaches Act.

“It is unfortunate that the Texas Supreme Court would reverse such a long-standing rule of law, destroying the right of Texans and future generations of Texans to enjoy open access to Texas beaches along the Gulf of Mexico,” Ryan said in a prepared statement.

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/201562

[sonias]

14. Good reading

Oh how I hate lawyerese - but it does start to make more sense to me.

I'm fixing your link to the Beaumont Enterprise which went bad above. It's a good article.

Beaumont Enterprise 12/30/10
Public agencies, activists continue to join fight on beach-access ruling

(snip)
'Babe' Schwartz joins

Similar briefs have been filed by the city of Galveston, environmental attorney Jim Blackburn and former legislator A.R. "Babe" Schwartz, who helped write the Open Beaches Act. Kendall County was expected to file an amicus brief today.

So far all the amicus briefs filed since Nov. 5 support the attorney general, who is defending Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson in a lawsuit brought by San Diego attorney Carol Severance that led to the state Supreme Court decision.

:kick:

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15. Thanks for the fix sonias

Anybody see any more stories on this please post them up.
I need some more bones to throw to my barking, hungry rethuglican dogs.:evilgrin: