January 11, 2022      5:44 PM
Texas Central and landowners again clash at the Supreme Court of Texas over eminent domain authority
The Texas Supreme Court made the
exceedingly rare choice of re-hearing a case it declined to re-hear last summer: Deciding whether Texas Central
fits the definition of a railroad and, thus, is vested with eminent domain
authority for its high speed Houston-Dallas route.
This case – landowner James Fredrick Miles v Texas
Central Railroad & Infrastructure – is, at its simplest, a case of the
chicken or the egg.
Attorneys for Miles, a Texas Farm Bureau
member in Leon County, argues Texas Central does not fit the state’s definition
of a railroad line or interurban electric railway simply by its choice to spend
a little money to incorporate.
Attorney Jeffrey Levinger, arguing on behalf of
Miles, told the Court the state has never granted eminent domain to a
high-speed rail company. And Texas Central – even with amendments to the
state’s transportation code – does not meet the letter of the current law.
By Kimberly Reeves
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