Last week, landowner Jim Miles, of Jewett, filed his Texas Supreme Court brief to fight for the protection of private property rights related to the proposed Dallas Houston HSR. In the trial court, Miles obtained a final judgment against Texas Central Railroad & Infrastructure confirming that Texas Central is not a railroad and does not have eminent domain authority. The Texas Court of Appeals overturned that ruling earlier this year and Miles appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. After reading Miles’ petition, the Texas Supreme Court asked Jim to file a full brief on the merits. The full brief can be downloaded here.
Miles originally sued Texas Central in March 2016 to end the constant harassment of Texas Central representatives, who could not produce a shred of proof of eminent domain authority. More than a year after Miles filed suit, Texas Central created a shell company, ITL, in an attempt to fix all the legal problems Texas Central encountered in trying to prove eminent domain authority in court. ITL then sued Miles despite having never contacted him or his attorneys in any manner whatsoever.
Once the Court of Appeals overturned the trial court ruling, Jim and his wife Barbara were even more resolved to continue the fight to protect their property rights, and the rights of all those impacted by the proposed HSR. “We’re going to take this all the way. Texans take their private property rights seriously and we know the Texas Supreme Court does too. We cannot allow private companies to take our land through self-declared and self-regulated eminent domain authority.”
Miles’ Texas Supreme Court brief, prepared by Jeff Levinger and Carl Cecere of Levinger PC, Blake Beckham and Patrick McShan of The Beckham Group, Dylan Drummond of Gray Reed, and Jason Sodd and Jody McSpadden of Dawson Sodd, states, “the court of appeals authorized private companies with no railroad experience, no tracks, no trains, and only a fraction of the money needed to build a high-speed railway system, to trample with impunity on the property rights of thousands of Texans.”
In his brief, Miles argues that only the Texas Supreme Court “can prevent the irreparable harm likely to result if [Texas Central and ITL]’s unlawful exercise of eminent domain power is allowed to play out to its inevitable failure. All are looking to this Court to prevent that result. It is essential that the Court do so because the court of appeals’ opinion upends the critical legislative and judicial protections against the unrestrained exercise of eminent domain authority by undercapitalized and inexperienced private actors like [Texas Central and ITL].”
Kyle Workman, president and chairman of Texans Against HSR and the TAHSR Land Defense Fund, said about the brief, “Jim Miles is absolutely on the right side of this. Texans deserve and demand for their property rights to be protected. We are confident the Texas Supreme Court will see the truth of how Texas Central is attempting to circumvent the law. This cannot be allowed in Texas.”
Texans Against High-Speed Rail, a group of landowners attempting to protect the property rights of all Texans, works to hold Texas Central to their claims while uncovering information vital to public review to prevent irreversible property value loss, irreparable environmental damage, and eminent domain abuse.
