lopaka said:
I live in Texas, am a home owner. I built a wooden fence around my property. Recently I have had a new neighbor move in next door. He has decided to put up a chain link fence to hold in his dogs. Without consulting,or asking me he has run his fence up to mine so that the fourth side of his enclosure is MY FENCE. What are my rights or options? Can he do this?
My response:
Prior to the Civil War, the open-range cattle industry made rapid strides in Texas. Grass was free, and the only property ranchers owned was horses and cattle. Each rancher claimed grazing rights for as much land as he could hold. Although they had no title to their so-called holdings, ranchmen were willing to enforce their claims with six-shooters. But by the end of the reconstruction, the free range that had fostered the great herds of the early days was beginning to feel the encroachment of the homesteaders or farming "nesters" upon their former pastures.
These homesteaders came with legal claims to the land and insisted on fencing their legitimate holdings to keep out wandering herds of cattle.
When the constitutional convention of 1875 was holding its sessions, the fencing problem had not yet reached major proportions for fencing was an expensive proposition. But a number of the Granger members of the convention had been informed of the invention in 1873 of a new, inexpensive fencing material known as barbed wire. With remarkable foresight, they envisioned that this new material would have serious repercussions on the economy of Texas, and suggested that a provision be placed in the constitution permitting the legislature to pass fence laws should the need therefor arise.
By 1883 the state was involved in a fence-cutting war. It was part of the conflict between landless cattlemen who wanted to retain the practices of the open range, and those who bought barbed wire to fence the land to establish themselves on permanent ranches. Most of the ranchmen owned or leased the land they fenced, but some of them enclosed public lands when they enclosed their own, and others strung their wire about farms and small ranches belonging to other persons. Often the fences blocked public roads; in some instances they cut off schools and churches, and interfered with the delivery of mail. This unwarranted fencing led some men whose land was not actually fenced in to join in the fence cutting.
Wrecking of fences was reported from more than half the Texas counties, and was done mostly at night by armed bands who called themselves Owls, Javelinas, or Blue Devils. Often those who destroyed fences left warnings against rebuilding, but these were usually disregarded. The clashes discouraged farming and scared away prospective settlers.
In spite of the provision in the constitution, politicians shied from the explosive issue, but on Oct. 15, 1883, Governor John Ireland called a special session of the legislature to meet on January 8, 1884. After a deluge of petitions and heated debates, the legislature made fence cutting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison. The penalty for malicious pasture burning, which often accompanied fence cutting, was two to five years in prison. Fencing of public lands or lands belonging to others knowingly and without permission was made a misdemeanor, and builders of such fences were to remove them within six months. Ranchers who built fences across public roads were required to place a gate every three miles and to keep the gates in repair.
These measures ended most of the fence troubles, although sporadic outbreaks of fence cutting continued for a decade, especially during drouts.
So, shoot the @$%&@* !
IAAL
