actually sue on their takings claims until sometime between October 1999 and April 2000 – roughly 18 years later. In 2024, after 40 years in dispute, the trial court awarded the landowners $531,231. These damages were awarded despite the State’s defense that any recovery was time-barred. 12 Both sides appealed.
acreage theory. Neither was the court swayed by claims that the 25-year adverse possession statute 15 (and not the 10-year statute) should apply. This was because the 25-year statute requires a recorded deed, and the closest thing to a recorded deed the landowners proffered was the Shine Survey. A survey merely describes boundaries and does not transfer ownership. Thus, the court of appeals held that the trial court should have granted summary judgment in favor of the State on its limitations claim under Section 16.026. 16
IV. Inverse Condemnation & Adverse Possession
After determining that the landowners had standing to make a constitutional challenge, the court turned to the question of inverse condemnation. Under the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, the government cannot take your property under its eminent domain or condemnation authority without “just compensation.” Similarly, a landowner must be justly compensated if the government takes his land through “ inverse condemnation.” Inverse condemnation is a type of government taking that does not involve formal condemnation proceedings. It instead involves taking some other type of action that effectively deprives the owner of the use of his property. Classic examples of inverse condemnation are flooding from a government-constructed dam or zoning laws that severely restrict property use and destroy all economic value. Texas does not have a specific statute of limitations for inverse condemnation claims. Instead, the Texas courts have analogized the law of adverse possession. They therefore apply the ten- year limitations period set forth in the Texas Adverse Possession Statute (Section 16.026). 13 The ten-year clock begins to run when the alleged physical taking occurred – in this case the date the Shine Survey was filed. The ten-year statute also limits adverse possession without a title instrument to a maximum of 160 acres unless the number of acres actually enclosed exceeds 160 acres (in which case there is no acreage limitation). 14 Although the Riemer parties agreed that the law of adverse possession applies by analogy in this situation, they disagreed as to which adverse possession rule applies. The landowners first tried to claim that Section 16.026 did not apply because their lands, in the aggregate, exceeded the statutory 160 acres. The court was not sold on this combined-
V. Conclusion & Takeaway
This case, which cascaded through the court system for decades, ultimately emptied into a sea of non-recovery for the private landowners. Although property owners are constitutionally entitled to just compensation when the government takes their land, they must seek recovery within the ten-year statute of limitations. The Riemer court noted that this constraint exists not to deny justice, but to ensure that claims are brought while evidence remains fresh and witnesses available. 17 Per the court: “Like the Canadian River itself, time flows in one direction. The Landowners had ten years to seek compensation for the alleged taking. They waited decades. Neither their understandable desire for compensation nor the complexity of riverbed boundary determinations can extend limitations periods that have already expired.” 18 As of the date this article was published, no petition for review has been filed with the Texas Supreme Court.
12 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 4406, at 4 13 TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 16.026. 14 Id. at § 16.026(b). 15 TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE ANN. § 16.028. 16 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 4406, at 15-17.
17 Id. at 17. 18 Id. at 18.
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G rowth T hrough E ducat i on - J uly / A ugus t / S ept ember 2025
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