Property Rights advocates know no international borders. Property owners on both side of the border raise concerns about the Trans Pecos Pipeline. Here’s what people are saying:
- “It is not only illegal but profoundly discourteous. It…
Category Archives: Pre-condemnation Access
Pre-condemantion Access: 100 Landowners Block Pipeline Access. Pipeline Sues. Law Sides with Landowners?
In the West Virginia mountains, a fight is brewing between a pipeline and 100 landowners over access to land.
The pipelines say they need access to the land to comply with federal requirements.
The landowners say that the access the pipeline wants exceeds what is allowed under West Virigina Law in at least 3 ways:
- West Virginia code is limited to examining, surveying, and laying out lands for easement
- Only a governmental body may enter and bring mac…
Pre-Condemnation Access. Cannot Take it for Granted. NFIB Lawyers on the Case.
A California Appellate Court ruled that pre-condemantion access to private property did not include environmental and geological testing.
The land at issue was to be part of a multi-million dollar water delivery project , the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, to divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California.
National Federation of Independent Business attorneys have filed an amicus brief supporting the landowner and encouraging the California Supreme…
9th COA Rules: No Common Carrier Status.
In a 7 year legal tussle over whether Denbury is a common carrier, the 9th Court of Appeals ruled that Denbury is not a common carrier. Sounds innocuous, except that common carrier status grants Denbury, a private pipeline company, the power of eminent domain. Common carrier status comes with great power.
The Legislature tried to fix the common carrier issue in 2013, but an elegant point of order stopped it. In the summer of 2014, the Railroad Commission tried to fix it by rule ma…
Activist Alert: Death of Democracy. March Protesting Pipeline Eminent Domain
In the last year, opposition to eminent domain has turned more vocal and more public. Opponents have:
- Hosted concerts & parades with world renowned musicians (featured Texans)
- Shut down public meetings with overflowing crowds (occurred in Texas)
- Consistently encourages city councils and county commissioners to vote in favor of land owners and against private entities using eminent domain (occurred in Texas)
This week we have “”Death of Demo…
Bills Target Utilities.
In an effort to keep utilities off private lands for surveying, bills in Virginia look to reign in the ability to survey within eminent domain powers.
Democrats are lining up to defend the utilities right to access private lands. Republicans are lining up on the other side.
Republicans also want utilities with eminent domain authority subject to open records. Watchdog.org
Information Intelligen…
When can a pipeline survey land?
A pipeline company wants to build. Accordingly, it sent landowners letters that it would be surveying land. The Appalachian landowners are unhappy. Rural mountain people upset with big corporations coming onto their land with fancy science equipment reads like a script for Deliverance 2014.
Lawyers say that until there is an established common carier purpose and a public need, the pipeline cannot survey land. [
Posted inpipelines/common carriers, Pre-condemnation Access, private company
An issue brewing in Texas Courts has been held unconstitutional by an Appellate Court in California. The Third Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled in Property Reserve, Inc. v. Super. Ct. of San Joaquin County that pre-condemnation entry statues violate California’s taking clause. It’s a legal battle currently brewing in Texas.
Posted inlegal trend, Pre-condemnation Access
Be happy Texas isn’t California where pre-condemntation surveying and impact testing took a hit. If a condemning entity wants onto land to look around, they have to condemn it first according to a new Appellate Ruling that halted the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. California Supremes will have the ultimate word.
Posted inlegal trend, Pre-condemnation Access
Legal Trend: Unconstitutional Pre-Condemnation Entry Statutes
Concerned about the 2015 eminent domain bills?