AUSTIN, Texas – Attorneys from the Dallas law firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry have joined the litigation team representing a group of Texas landowners who say the federal government is attempting an illegal land grab by trying to seize more than 90,000 acres of their property along the Red River near the Texas-Oklahoma border.
“We knew the issues in this case were far too important for our firm not to be involved,” says attorney Austin Curry, a name principal at Caldwell Cassady & Curry. “A lot of lawyers at our firm grew up in Texas, and we view it as our duty to represent the property rights of our fellow Texans against the wrongful taking of their land.”
Caldwell Cassady & Curry is best known for representing clients in intellectual property cases, including winning a $625.6 million patent infringement verdict earlier this year in East Texas federal court. The firm’s attorneys will now represent the landowners alongside lawyers from the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).
“Rob Henneke and the other great lawyers at TPPF are spearheading this effort,” says Mr. Curry. “It’s a great cause, and we are honored to be their co-counsel.”
The lawsuit includes seven Texas families who have long owned and worked on property located on a 116-mile stretch of land near the Red River. Each family has been told by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that they may be required to forfeit a significant portion of their property due to it being claimed as federal territory. One landowner was told he may be asked to turn over more than 1,400 of the 2,000 acres his family has owned since the 1960s. Another family targeted by the federal government has operated a 700-acre parcel in Wichita and Wilbarger counties since the 1940s.
The landowners, who have deeds covering the property and have paid related local taxes for years, say the government’s claim to their land violates a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court ruling.
Last month, both the Texas Attorney General and the Texas Land Commissioner intervened on the landowners’ behalf in the lawsuit, which is pending in the Wichita Falls Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The case is Aderholt, et al. v. Bureau of Land Management, et al., No. 7:15-CV-00162.
Dallas-based Caldwell Cassady & Curry represents clients in intellectual property disputes and commercial litigation claims. The firm is home to trial lawyers who have tried and won some of the biggest verdicts of the past decade against some of the largest companies in the world. Visit http://www.caldwellcc.com.
For more information about the lawsuit, visit http://www.RedRiverPropertyRights.com.