BHDA partners from the litigation and water practice groups, Doug Caroom, Susan Maxwell, and Gunnar Seaquist, represented Pape Partners, Ltd., petitioners, in a water rights case heard by the Supreme Court of Texas on March 24, 2022. Counsel from the Office of the Attorney General of Texas (OAG), on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), also briefed and argued in support of the reversal sought by the petitioners. On Friday, May 20, 2022, the Court issued its opinion, ordering the lower courts’ jurisdictional ruling reversed and remanded. An overview of the Court’s opinion is below, and the entire opinion can be found here. Oral arguments by Mr. Seaquist and the OAG before the Court can be watched here.
On May 20, 2022, in Pape Partners, Ltd. v. DRR Family Properties LP, the Supreme Court of Texas delivered its opinion, which held that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) does not have the authority (under its general jurisdiction over water and water rights adjudication) to decide conflicting claims to ownership of already issued surface-water rights. The Court’s opinion stated the “adjudication of such claims is for the courts, not the agency,” and thus reversed the 2020 majority ruling by the Waco Court of Appeals affirming dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims based on TCEQ’s exclusive jurisdiction to decide private property rights disputes over surface water rights ownership. This clarification of TCEQ’s role in administering existing surface water rights has statewide impact for water rights owners and other stakeholders throughout Texas.
