TEXAS SUPREME COURT TO HEAR EMINENT DOMAIN CASE AGAINST TEXAS CENTRAL’S PROPOSED HIGH-SPEED RAIL

  

The Texas Supreme Court has granted a motion for rehearing of a case that challenges the eminent domain authority of the company in charge of the controversial high-speed rail project between Houston and Dallas.

The court previously denied review of the matter, but on Friday it agreed to hear the case of James Miles, a landowner in Leon County who is challenging whether or not Texas Central is legally recognized as a railroad company under state law.  Oral arguments are set for January 11, 2022.

In the case summary provided by the court, Miles argues that Texas Central “is not operating as a railroad because it has not taken crucial steps toward operation, such as laying track or running cars.”  He also states that the company “is not an ‘interurban electric’ railway because the Legislature did not intend to include large high-speed railways within the statutory definition.”

The summary also cites the case of Texas Rice Land Partners, LTD v. Denbury, and Miles says the decision from that case “requires entities show a reasonable probability that a project will be completed before obtaining eminent domain power.”

State Representative Ben Leman applauded the court's decision to hear the case, saying in a statement that private property ownership “is among our most cherished rights in Texas” and that allowing a private entity to “abuse that right” would set “a disastrous new precedent in Texas.”