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[Texas] Attorney general sues to stop
business's land protection claim
(Note: Welcome to "property rights, Texas style." The rub
regarding land taking for roads is the huge "buffer zone" --
or "corridor" -- upon which no roads will be built. This is
where the legal use of eminent domain stops. Until the public stops
paying others to "protect" and "represent" it --
and learns how to protect its own property rights using education and
empowerment -- property rights still lie directly in harm's way.)
September 14, 2006
By Gordon Dickson [email protected]
or 817-685-3816
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
400 West 7th
Fort Worth, Texas 76102-4793
817-390-7400
Fax: 817-390-7789
http://www.star-telegram.com page
loads as: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/
To submit a Letter to the Editor: [email protected]
A lawsuit has been filed to stop three Central Texas residents from claiming that they can protect property owners from losing land to the Trans-Texas Corridor, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. The business, You Can't Take It, offered to protect landowners from eminent domain proceedings for a $600 fee, which would increase to $1,000 by November, and a $100 annual maintenance fee, Abbott said in a news release. Transportation officials say they still don't know the precise path of the toll road and rail lines that would connect the San Antonio area to North Texas, including an outer loop around Dallas-Fort Worth. But once a route is chosen, the state can legally take land for a public road and pay the owner an agreed-upon price or a sum set in eminent domain proceedings. You Can't Take It says land can be protected by filing commercial lease agreements, when that could actually cause owners to lose their land, Abbott said in a statement. Named in the lawsuit are Douglas Lee Thayer (aka Morgan) and Lou Ann Reed (aka Fuller) of Killeen, and Nykee Jolene Murray (aka Keen) of Austin. The attorney general's office is seeking temporary and permanent injunctions halting deceptive claims or advertising, along with penalties of $20,000 per violation and $250,000 for consumers ages 65 or older.
Copyright 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
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