Parts of Boerne (TX) apartments must go (Built over Easement - Court rules.. Tear 'em down)

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 05/03/2010 | By Zeke MacCormack - Express-News

[Responsibility2nd]

“My personal feeling is the Trada people ... didn't figure a country hick Texan would fight them this long,” he said.

Moral: Don't mess with Texas (Or Texans either, for that matter.)

[Jane Long]

"Moral: Don't mess with Texas (Or Texans either, for that matter.)"

Or Texans and their land, either!

[Trajan88]

Trada Partners VI = PWNED!

It is nice to see that the "little" guy does win now and again.

[Responsibility2nd]

I like how he took a tracto one time - TO HIS OWN LAND - and "cleared" it.

The award includes $1 million for malicious prosecution stemming from a 2008 incident in which Vogt, a feisty former constable, used a tractor to try to clear the easement of fencing, air conditioning units and other obstructions. A grand jury declined to indict him.

[pnh102]

Nice indeed.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

He called Williams' demolition order unreasonable, since the Vogts can reach their acre via their homestead even with the easement blocked.

Who cares how he can reach his homestead? The law is very specific on how easements are to be handled by agreements of both parties of the bordering properties.

He never agreed for an intrusion into the easement, so the easement must be cleared of the intrusion.

Welcome to the real world, now put on your big boy pants and deal with the consequences of buying property that was involved in litigation.

[NC28203]

>>>I like how he took a tractor one time - TO HIS OWN LAND - and "cleared" it.

Technically, this was not done on his own land. The land was owned by the other party. The easement just allowed him the right to use the real property of another without possessing it.

[apillar]

$1.5 million in damages plus an order to demolish the apartment complex! Something tells me that the Vogts will soon be in the rental property business as they will probably get the apartment complex in lieu of the $1.5 million. I guess they take their easements seriously down in Texas.

[lonestar]

Technically, this was not done on his own land. The land was owned by the other party.

I missed that...where did you get it?

[HereInTheHeartland]

” built seven buildings in the easement, based on an expectation the Vogts would agree to vacate “

Wow; some people really are stupid.

[jettester]

Man, I haven’t been through Boerne since the early 80’s - a girlfriend’s father had a nice spread out that way. Small, quiet town that if you blinked, you blew right through “downtown”.

[NC28203]

>>>I missed that...where did you get it?

The easement was mentioned in the first line.

"The developer of Stone Creek Village apartments didn't heed warnings in 2006 about encroaching on a neighbor's easement."

[Responsibility2nd]

NC is correct. Technically Vogt didn’t own the easement. And when the article says....

...who own the 20-foot-wide access easement that connects Main Street to his 1-acre parcel behind the 128-unit apartment complex....

that is not technically correct also. All Vogt has here is a legal right to access his property though someones else’s property.

[lonestar]

It doesn’t say which piece of property the easement came from.

[Just A Reader]

I misread that too, thanks for catching it. So the old man was originally allowed to cross someone else’s land to get to his property and wiley enough to know that after a certain amount of time he could claim that as “his”.

[GeronL]

Fight on fellow Texans.

[GeronL]

” built seven buildings in the easement, based on an expectation the Vogts would agree to vacate “

You might want to get that in writing first

[GeronL]

The easement is a legally binding agreement, he didn’t just one day claim it unilaterally. Its probably written into the deed on the property.

[passionfruit]

“I missed that...where did you get it?”
That’s what an easement is. It is the right to pass through another person’s property. The farmer had the right to pass through the neighboring property to access his back parcel. Then the owner of the property with the easement built apartments on the easement.

[HereInTheHeartland]

I am amazed that basic title issues were ignored.

“I will just go ahead and build on someone else’s property and “assume” they will eventually sign it over to me”!! (my paraphrasing)