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Supreme Court of Texas hears arguments on utility easement scope and modernization
Summary
The court heard two cases over whether utilities may modernize or change the intensity of use of a decades-old power-line easement without an express expansion. Counsel and justices debated Restatement authority, the need for limiting principles to protect small-property owners, and factual questions about surveys and reliance.
The Supreme Court of Texas heard oral argument in two easement cases that asked whether a utility may modernize power lines and increase the intensity of use under an easement established in 1947 without express expansion. Speaker 1, Counsel, told the court the cases include Warr State v. Reno Grande Electric Quadrant (from McKinney County in the fourth court of appeals) and Braxton Minerals v. Battle (case number 240438, from Tarrant County in the second court of appeals), and that “the court's allotted 20 minutes to each side of each of the cases.”
Speaker 2, Justice, framed the central policy tension: “competing at least 2 competing policy concerns here. And 1 is that, you know, we wanna encourage electric companies to to to keep things safer with water technology, to make things more efficient, to to to make sure…
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