Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR47 Compare Versions

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1	1	By: Hegar S.C.R. No. 47
2	2
3	3
4	4	SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
5	5	WHEREAS, Grandfather's Blind, Limited, and Donner Properties
6	6	allege that:
7	7	(1) Grandfather's Blind, Limited, owns the surface of
8	8	a body of land in Refugio County, Texas, that is estimated to
9	9	contain approximately 3,800 acres and that is commonly known as
10	10	"Negley Ranch," "Swan Lake Ranch," "Duncan Point," and other names;
11	11	(2) all the surface of this property was patented by
12	12	the State of Texas into private ownership through 13 patents or
13	13	awards, dating from 1861 through 1956, that together state a
14	14	collective patented area in Refugio County of 3,827.37 acres and
15	15	included inland lake waters;
16	16	(3) in five of these patents, dated 1946 or 1952, the
17	17	state reserved as a free royalty a one-sixteenth royalty on all oil
18	18	and gas production and a one-eighth royalty on sulphur and other
19	19	minerals, and in three of these patents, dated 1956, the state
20	20	reserved as a free royalty one-eighth of all oil, gas, sulphur, and
21	21	other minerals;
22	22	(4) since the issuance of the patents, various
23	23	landowners, mineral owners, and others have relied in good faith on
24	24	these patents, including the free royalty mineral reservations
25	25	stated therein, and with the exception of those free royalty
26	26	mineral reservations, all the minerals within the boundaries
27	27	described by each of the 13 patents are today owned by Donner
28	28	Properties, except for a portion owned by ConocoPhillips;
29	29	(5) the potential value of the property for future
30	30	mineral development is currently believed to be minimal;
31	31	(6) the property, which is mostly undeveloped, offers
32	32	a wildlife habitat having importance publicly recognized by the
33	33	United States Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the
34	34	Interior, and the principal use of the property is recreation and
35	35	enjoyment of its natural beauty;
36	36	(7) of the property conveyed by the 13 patents,
37	37	approximately 70 percent was conveyed by means of, and is owned
38	38	under, patents whose boundaries are defined entirely or almost
39	39	entirely by metes and bounds calls of course and distance and not by
40	40	calls to any shore or waters or other natural monument;
41	41	(8) of the property conveyed by the 13 patents,
42	42	approximately 30 percent was conveyed by means of, and is owned
43	43	under, patents that have at least one boundary defined by a call to
44	44	the shore of Hynes Bay, San Antonio Bay, or Guadalupe Bayou;
45	45	(9) under timeless rules of coastal geography law, the
46	46	shores of Hynes Bay, San Antonio Bay, and Guadalupe Bayou are
47	47	continuous, can be easily located and surveyed, and for survey and
48	48	boundary purposes exist today in substantially the same locations,
49	49	without gaps, as their locations reflected by the maps, surveys,
50	50	and property descriptions filed in the General Land Office in
51	51	connection with the patents;
52	52	(10) under Section 18.033, Civil Practice and Remedies
53	53	Code, the maps, surveys, and property descriptions filed in the
54	54	General Land Office in connection with each of the 13 patents are
55	55	presumed to accurately depict the boundaries between the patents
56	56	and the adjacent state-owned lands submerged beneath Hynes Bay, San
57	57	Antonio Bay, and Guadalupe Bayou;
58	58	(11) all waters situated within the footprint of the
59	59	13 patents, being neither navigable in fact nor navigable in law,
60	60	are not in any part public water but are private water in which the
61	61	public has no right to boat or fish, and the right of the owners to
62	62	exclude the public from those waters is not subject to any public
63	63	easement or piscatory rights but is absolute and unqualified;
64	64	(12) for decades, private owners have paid property
65	65	taxes on all of the property conveyed by the 13 patents, including
66	66	the land covered by water;
67	67	(13) the General Land Office has never assigned state
68	68	lease tract numbers to any property located within the recorded
69	69	boundaries of any of the 13 patents but has created state lease
70	70	tracts adjacent to the property whose boundaries follow, adjoin,
71	71	respect, and agree with the private boundaries as shown on the maps,
72	72	surveys, and property descriptions filed in the General Land Office
73	73	in connection with the 13 patents, and the electronic "Interactive
74	74	Land/Lease Mapping System" published and maintained on the Internet
75	75	by the General Land Office also shows boundaries that agree with the
76	76	boundaries established by the patents;
77	77	(14) over time, land within the 13 patents has eroded
78	78	or accreted in various places, and as a result, some private waters
79	79	over the 13 patents are not physically separated by land from public
80	80	waters of adjacent bays;
81	81	(15) members of the public, especially during hunting
82	82	season, have invaded and disturbed the owners' peaceful enjoyment
83	83	of their property, creating an unreasonable risk of breaches of the
84	84	peace, potential premises liability issues, and other problems
85	85	inconsistent with this state's system of property rights;
86	86	(16) the public confusion and resulting risk of injury
87	87	and harm can be dispelled, and the peace restored, only by a court
88	88	decree fixing and determining with certainty the location of the
89	89	boundary that separates the land and private water owned by the
90	90	owners under the 13 patents from the state-owned submerged land and
91	91	public water of Hynes Bay, San Antonio Bay, and Guadalupe Bayou that
92	92	surround the property on three sides, and also determining the
93	93	rights of the owners to exclude the public from the land and the
94	94	water within the bounds of the 13 patents;
95	95	(17) Grandfather's Blind, Limited, has attempted to
96	96	affirm the boundaries originally established by the 13 patents
97	97	issued by the General Land Office and has been told by the General
98	98	Land Office that it no longer owns the land covered by water;
99	99	(18) the owners do not seek recovery of monetary
100	100	damages from the state, but seek only to obtain the determination of
101	101	their boundary and determination of their rights through a court
102	102	order that:
103	103	(A) fixes and determines the boundary that
104	104	separates the land privately owned by the owners under the 13
105	105	patents from the adjacent land owned by the state;
106	106	(B) decrees that the owners have the absolute and
107	107	exclusive right to use and enjoy all of the land within the outer
108	108	perimeter of the 13 patents and to exclude the public therefrom,
109	109	including land that is covered by water;
110	110	(C) decrees that with the exception of those
111	111	certain mineral interests reserved to the state as a free royalty
112	112	under the express terms of some of the patents, all of the minerals
113	113	within the outer perimeter of the boundary established by those
114	114	patents, including minerals lying under lands covered by water, are
115	115	owned according to the terms of the conveyances made under the
116	116	patents; and
117	117	(D) decrees that the owners have the absolute and
118	118	exclusive right to use and enjoy all of the water within the outer
119	119	perimeter of the 13 patents, which is private water that is not
120	120	navigable and to exclude the public from boating on, fishing in, or
121	121	otherwise using that water; now, therefore, be it
122	122	RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That
123	123	Grandfather's Blind, Limited, and Donner Properties are granted
124	124	permission to sue the State of Texas, the General Land Office, and
125	125	the School Land Board subject to Chapter 107, Civil Practice and
126	126	Remedies Code; and, be it further
127	127	RESOLVED, That the suit authorized by this resolution may be
128	128	brought in Refugio or Travis County; and, be it further
129	129	RESOLVED, That the relief awarded in the suit authorized by
130	130	this resolution is limited to the relief authorized under Chapter
131	131	37, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, or Chapter 22, Property Code,
132	132	or both; and, be it further
133	133	RESOLVED, That the commissioner of the General Land Office,
134	134	and the chairman of the School Land Board, both offices currently
135	135	being held by the same person, be served process as provided by
136	136	Subdivision (3), Subsection (a), Section 107.002, Civil Practice
137	137	and Remedies Code.