| A little reminder to the Texas Supreme Court, Texas voted Public Beach Right into our Constitution 3-1! |
It would have been nice if on Wednesday the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeals would have announced that the long running Severance v. Patterson Texas Open Beaches Act Challenge was mootand the State’s Public Beach Easement was completely restored but alas, that would have made too much sense. Instead the Federal Apellatte Court issued an unpublished two paragraph opinion declared that Carol Severance, a San Diego Divorce Attorney and Real Estate Agent, still has standing in Texas because the, “briefing persuades us that under Texas law, Carol Severance remains exposed to potential liability for alleged violations of the Texas Open Beaches Act.”
So for now, The Texas Supreme Court’s ruling still stands and the public beaches in Galveston remain drastically compromised lying only between the mean high and mean low tide lines with the danger of that ruling being expanding to the entire Texas Court. The U.S. 5th Circuits opinion also means that the Texas Supreme Court must now decide if it will overrule it’s decision based on the arguments that were heard by The Texas General Land Office at the April 19th, 2011 rehearing of the case.
So we wait for the Texas Supreme Court to do the right thing while Ms. Severance sits back in California with the $2 million profit she raked in thanks to the great enabler, FEMA anxiously awaiting to be crowned “Destroyer of the Texas Open Beaches Act”.
To date the original ruling of the Texas Supreme Court Opinion has spurned numerous lawsuits and resulted in the cancellation of a much needed $40 million beach fill project that would have repaired the beaches in Galveston and put a much needed buffer between the Gulf of Mexico and many homes after Hurricane Ike. Way to goPacific Legal Foundation!!
