Opinion ID: 2829231
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Background on Severance’s Property

Text: Carol Severance purchased the Kennedy Drive property on Galveston Island’s West Beach in 2005. The Fifth Circuit explained that “[n]o easement has ever been established on [her] parcel via prescription, implied dedication, or continuous right.” 566 F.3d at 494. The State obtained the Hill judgment in 1975 that encumbered a strip of beach seaward of Severance’s property. Severance’s Kennedy Drive parcel was not included in the 1975 judgment. However, the parties dispute whether or not Severance’s parcel was ever subject to a public easement. In 1999, the Kennedy Drive house was on a Texas General Land Office (GLO) list of approximately 107 Texas homes located seaward of the vegetation line after Tropical Storm Frances hit the island in 1998. In 2004, the GLO again determined that the Kennedy Drive home was located “wholly or in part” on the dry beach in 2004, but did not threaten public health or safety and, at the time, was subject to a GLO two-year moratorium order. When Severance purchased the property, she received an OBA-mandated disclosure explaining that the property may become located on a public beach due to natural processes such as shoreline erosion, and if that happened, the State could sue seeking to forcibly remove any structures that come to be located on the public beach. See Tex. Nat. Res. Code § 61.025. Winds attributed to Hurricane Rita shifted the vegetation line further inland in September 2005. In 2006, the GLO determined that Severance’s house was entirely within the public beach. The moratorium for enforcing the OBA on Severance’s properties expired on June 7, 2006. Severance received a letter from the GLO requiring her to remove the Kennedy Drive home because it was located on a public beach. A second letter reiterated that the home was in violation of the OBA and must be removed from the beach, and offered her $40,000 to remove or relocate it if she acted before October 2006. She initiated suit in federal court. The Fifth Circuit certified questions of Texas law to this Court.