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- Title
Severance v. Patterson: How Do Property Rights Move When the Dynamic Sea Meets the Static Shore?
- Authors
Hunter, Gwynne
- Abstract
This Note examines the recent Texas Supreme Court case Severance v. Patterson, which held that Texas does not recognize "rolling easements"-- easements that move with physical shifts of the shoreline. The court limited this holding to "avulsive " weather events, such as hurricanes, allowing easements to move with less perceptible erosion. This meant that plaintiff Severance's house was allowed to stand after Hurricane Rita washed the beachfront inland to surround her house, since the public beach easement did not move with the sand and the surrounding land was thus still privately controlled. The Note first explains how the Texas majority could have found that rolling easements do exist by eschewing the avulsion/erosion distinction. The Note next explores the takings implications of rolling easements, advocating for a different taking test than the one used by the dissent. Finally, the Note explores additional legal mechanisms that can be used to achieve fairness between private and public property owners in the case of rolling easements.
- Subjects
UNITED States; TEXAS. Supreme Court; SERVITUDES; SHORELINES; HURRICANES &; the environment; HURRICANE Rita, 2005; GOVERNMENT property; LAW
- Publication
Ecology Law Quarterly, 2013, Vol 40, Issue 2, p271
- ISSN
0046-1121
- Publication type
Article