The Supreme Court Tuesday ruled in favor of a Texas rancher and other landowners who say the state flooded their properties, allowing them to sue the state for compensation for their damaged buildings, animals and crops.
In a unanimous ruling, the justices reasoned the property owners had a right to sue to vindicate their property rights.
“Texas state law provides a cause of action by which property owners may seek just compensation against the state,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.
Texas landowners brought the legal battle in two counties outside Houston, who say a state highway extension intentionally flooded their property, damaging buildings, crops and equipment. What’s worse, they say, the state didn’t compensate them for “taking” their land.
Dozens of landowners filed lawsuits in state court against Texas. They argued that the use of their land for water runoff constitutes a “taking” under the state Constitution and the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which says private property can’t be “taken for public use without just compensation.”
Texas consolidated the lawsuits into a single case in federal court, which ruled that the Takings Clause applied and rejected the state’s move to dismiss the suits.
However, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can’t be sued in federal court for the takings, prompting the property owners to take their case to the high court.
The justices’ decision vacated that 5th Circuit ruling and lets the property owners proceed with their lawsuit against the state.
The lawsuit was brought by 120 individuals and five corporations after land in Chambers and Jefferson counties—east of Houston and along the Gulf Coast—flooded during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019.
Highway 10 was expanded from four to six lanes, and a 3-foot concrete barrier was erected between the eastbound and westbound lanes. In storms, it acts as a dam that floods property north of the freeway, according to court filings and photographs.
Texas unsuccessfully argued that Congress must create a federal cause of action for a taking under the U.S. Constitution for a state to be sued.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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