U.S. Supreme Court Comes to a Decision on Devillier v. Texas

In Texas v. Devillier, a group of landowners in Chambers County sued TxDOT for installing structures on I-10 that caused their properties to flood. The State removed the case to federal court and then filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing there is no federal cause of action the landowners could pursue in federal court. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately held that the landowners can pursue a takings cause of action in federal court using a state law cause of action and allowed the case to proceed. 

The ruling will be useful for future landowners because it confirms landowners can pursue a takings cause of action against the State in federal court. They will now be able to pursue their case in federal court, even though the State tried to dismiss this particular case. This is a fairly nuanced area of the law and there have not been many cases like it before, so similar situations in the future may be somewhat rare.

It will be interesting to see how the case unfolds now that the landowners have won against the State’s first attempt to have the case dismissed. Read more about the background of the case and the January U.S. Supreme Court hearing here.