Opinion ID: 2829230
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Texas Coastal Property Ownership

Text: Property lines on the coast are defined by migratory, dynamic boundaries. In Luttes v. State , we determined that Anglo-American common law applied to land grants after 1840 5 and thus affixed the mean high tide as the boundary between state and private ownership of land abutting tidal waters. 324 S.W.2d 167 (Tex. 1958). The beach is commonly known to lie between the mean low tide and vegetation line. For over fifty years, the OBA has assimilated that common knowledge as a statutory definition as well. All land seaward of the mean high tide , 6 known as the wet beach, is held by the state in public trust. Luttes , 324 S.W.2d at 191–93; see State v. Balli , 190 S.W.2d 71, 100 (Tex. 1945) (recognizing the “ancient maxim that seashore is common property and never passes to private hands”). The land between the mean high tide and the vegetation line is the dry beach and may be privately owned. Luttes , 324 S.W.2d at 191–93 . I agree with the Court that “[w]e have never held the dry beach to be encompassed in the public trust.” ___ S.W.3d ___. If this case were a matter of title, Luttes would provide the answer: the mean high tide separates public and private property ownership interests. But this case is about the enforcement of a common law easement that preserves the public’s right to access the dry beach. The mean low tide, mean high tide, and vegetation line are transitory. 7 Landowners may own property up to the mean high tide. But the exact metes and bounds of the beachfront property line cannot be ascertained with any specificity at any given time other than by reference to the mean high tide. Through shoreline erosion, hurricanes, and tropical storms, these lines are constantly moving both inland and seaward. In the West Bay system, whence this litigation arose, forty-eight percent of the shoreline is retreating, forty-seven percent is stable and six percent is advancing, at an average rate of -2.9 feet per year. 8 The beaches on west Galveston Island, where Severance’s property is located, have even higher retreat rates (a loss of over seven feet per year) because of their exposure to winds and waves. 9 Natural erosion from waves and currents causes an overall shoreline retreat for the entire Texas coast. 1 0 These natural laws have compelled Texas common law to recognize rolling easements. 1 1 Easements that allow the public access to the beach must roll with the changing coastline in order to protect the public’s right of use. The dynamic principles that govern vegetation and tide lines must therefore apply to determine the boundaries of pre-existing public beachfront easements. See Matcha v. Mattox , 711 S.W.2d 95, 100 (Tex. App.—Austin 1986, writ ref’d n.r.e .) cert. denied , 481 U.S. 1024 (1987) (“An easement fixed in place while the beach moves would result in the easement being either under water or left high and dry inland, detached from the shore. Such an easement, meant to preserve the public right to use and enjoy the beach, would then cease functioning for that purpose”). “The law cannot freeze such an easement at one place anymore than the law can freeze the beach itself.” Id .