Property owners talk academics at conference
“When they feel wronged by the government or by a utility, academics don’t get mad. They get even — by writing a paper about it.
Andrew Morriss, dean of the University of Texas A&M School of Law, told the 120 people attending the the Montana Property Rights Conference Friday morning that a utility used condemnation proceedings to take thousands of trees off the Texas ranch owned by his in-laws in order to construct high transmission power lines.
He and two colleagues, Roy Brandys and Michael Barron, wrote a 2013 paper on the experiences of Morriss’ in-laws — including proposed remedies — called “Involuntary Cotenants: Eminent Domain and Energy and Communications Infrastructure Growth.”
When property owners share their property with an entity like a utility, “a lot of issues come up,” Morriss said, including “Who has the key to your gates? What are they doing about weed control? Who will pick up all the trash?”
“There will be a lot more takings (by utilities) as we move forward,” Morriss predicted. “There is a lot of infrastructure, and we’re going to need more. The issue is, are (utilities) going to pay for (a taking), or are they going to steal it?””
Ferguson, Mike. Billings Gazette 15 August 2014.