Ted Hirtz, John M. Arrington, Catherine Cash, John Posey, and Edward Holland v. The State of Texas, Defendant-Appellee-Appellant

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

I

The plaintiffs own beachfront property on the Texas Gulf coast. Along that shoreline, the state owns the land between the line of mean low tide and the line of mean high tide. The public has an easement between the line of mean high tide and the line of vegetation, acquired under common law principles of dedication, prescription, and/or custom. Because of the peculiar definition of this type of easement, the location of the easement shifts as the vegetation line shifts.

Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and fierce spring storms in 1988 caused radical shifts in the…