The Texas Supreme Court has reversed a San Antonio Court of Appeals ruling that allowed an electric utility’s to upgrade a power line on an easement acquired in the 1940s. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that although the utility established that it had an easement by estoppel, the upgraded line exceeded the scope of the original easement.
John P. Boerschig v. Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, Inc. (No. 24-0213, May 22, 2026) arose from a dispute over ownership of an electric transmission line easement. Boerschig bought about 6,300 acres of land in Kinney County in 2022. An electric line traversed about 8,000 feet of the ranch, which Boerschig saw when he purchased it. A decade later Rio Grande started to upgrade the line. It located the purported easement across the ranch and sent it to Boerschig. He responded that the easement did not govern the original electric line. Rio Grande subsequently located a 1930 deed in which a former owner of the ranch conveyed the property to his wife, the wife’s 1947 will, and an easement executed by the wife’s independent executor (the Dooley easement) in the same year. Boerschig challenged Rio Grande’s contention that the Dooley easement authorized it to upgrade the original line, which involved installing taller 45-foot poles. He sued Rio Grande for trespass, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief and attorney’s fees. Rio Grade answered and asserted affirmative defenses of express easement, prescriptive easement, and easement by estoppel and sought attorney’s fees. A jury found that Rio Grande possessed an easement by estoppel and that the upgraded line did not exceed the scope of the easement. The trial court signed a judgment on the verdict and awarded Rio Grande $217,000 in attorney’s fees. Boerschig appealed. The court of appeals affirmed. SCOTX accepted review and reversed.
We are not certain what the long-term effect of this ruling may be on the state’s energy infrastructure and the ability of electric transmission utilities to keep up with Texas’ massive growth using their existing network of easements. We hope that the decision’s impact will be limited but fear that it won’t be. And if it’s not, delivering electricity to 30 million Texans (and growing) is going to be a lot more expensive in the future.
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