(Justice Guzman not sitting) 08-0551 State of Texas v. Charles Lynn Brownlow and Marlene H. Brownlow from Brazoria County and the 14th District Court of Appeals, Houston For petitioner: Lisa Marie McClain, Austin For respondents: Bud Arnot, Houston The issue is whether the Department of Transportation's permanent easement for a water-detention pond adjacent to a widened highway allows the state to excavate soil from the easement for highway work miles away. Claiming inverse condemnation, the Brownlows sued the state for unconstitutionally taking their property, arguing they owned the dirt. Their permanent easement resulted from an earlier challenge to the state's effort to take a fee-simple interest in their land. The trial court dismissed the Brownlows' suit on the state's jurisdictional plea. The court of appeals reversed, holding the state did not have sovereign immunity because the easement did not transfer the soil's ownership from the Brownlows to the state. The first argument begins at 9 a.m. in the courtroom in Austin. Each side will have 20 minutes for argument. This advisory serves only as an abbreviated guide to oral argument. Summaries are prepared by the Court's staff attorney for public information and reflect his judgment alone on facts and legal issues and in no way represent the Court's opinion about case merits. Texas Supreme Court advisory Contact: Osler McCarthy, Staff Attorney for Public Information (512) 463.1441 or email: osler.mccarthy@courts.state.tx.us

The principal issues are (1) whether Civil Practice and Remedies Code chapter 95 - establishing a property owner's liability for an independent contractor's employees' injuries - applies to negligent-activity or negligent-undertaking claims and (2) whether the injured worker's claim in this case arose from his construction, repair, renovation or modification of a real-property improvement when he was burned by gases leaking from a unit separate from the one was repairing (95.002(2)). Elmgren sued for burns he suffered while working for an independent contractor doing maintenance on pipes that carry gas to one of several furnaces in a chemical plant. Gas ignited from a leak at another furnace about 100 feet from where Elmgren worked, causing a flash fire. The trial court granted summary judgment for the work-site owner, ruling that chapter 95 applied. The court of appeals reversed on Elmgren's negligent-activity and negligent-undertaking theories.

The principal issues in this challenge to a redemption order are (1) whether substantial compliance satisfies Tax Code section 32.21 redemption requirements, in this case payment tendered within 180 days of the property sale, and (2) whether the estate substantially complied despite failing to tender property taxes and insurance.

The primary issues in this case are whether (1) Texas law grants eminent domain authority to a pipeline owner shipping polymer grade propylene; (2) a pipeline shipping a product from the pipeline owner’s sole manager to an unaffiliated customer constitutes a public use; and (3) the landowner may properly testify that the highest-and-best use of the taken land is as a pipeline corridor, and value the land through comparisons to past, private pipeline easement sales.

This appeal addresses personal jurisdiction over a foreign manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary.