Caldwell Cassady & Curry Helps Landowners Resolve Red River Land Battle
Settlement ends high-profile property rights lawsuit, defines Texas/Oklahoma border
DALLAS – Attorneys from Dallas’ Caldwell Cassady & Curry led by name principal Austin Curry have helped a group of Texas property owners turn back the federal government in its attempt to seize nearly 90,000 acres of land located near the Red River along the Texas/Oklahoma border.
The lawsuit was resolved through a settlement approved on November 8 by Judge Reed O’Connor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Under the settlement, the landowners will retain their property, and the border between Texas and Oklahoma has been established as lying within the flow of the Red River.
“It’s unfortunate that our clients had to defend their property against the government’s claims to their land,” says Mr. Curry. “And the settlement proves that our clients were always right — that the government’s surveys were faulty and invalid. We are honored to have helped our clients achieve this result.”
Mr. Curry represented the landowners along with lawyers from the Texas Public Policy Foundation and fellow Caldwell Cassady & Curry attorneys Brad Caldwell, John Summers and Daniel Pearson.
The property owners and their families have worked on the land and paid property taxes for generations. They accused the U.S. Bureau of Land Management of wrongly trying to seize their property based on the government’s argument that the Texas/Oklahoma border had moved over the years based on the Red River’s shifting path.
Mr. Curry’s clients were joined in their lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General’s Office and others, including support from Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The settlement also includes an agreement with federal officials to dismiss previous land surveys covering the property. The Bureau of Land Management also agreed to issue a disclaimer on prior agency maps that show federal boundaries extending into Texas.
The case is Aderholt, et al. v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, et al., No. 7:15-CV-00162, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Caldwell Cassady & Curry represents companies and individuals in high-stakes civil litigation, including patent infringement cases, fiduciary duty cases, class actions, and disputes involving company founders. The firm has tried and won some of the nation’s top verdicts against the largest companies in the world.