Quiz Answers

Private Property Rights:
Check Your Property Rights IQ
By Judon Fambrough

1. True. Relatives of the person buried on private property have the right to visit the gravesite to decorate and protect the grave (Gibson v. Berry Cemetery Association, 250 S.W. 2d 600 [1952]).
2. False. According to the act, landowners must sue within 180 days, not one year, after governmental action restricts or limits their private property rights.
3. False. The public has the right to travel up and down navigable stream beds. Not all streams are navigable.
4. False. The servient tenant has the right to designate the route in a reasonable manner giving due regards for the rights and interests of the dominant tenant. If the servient tenant refuses to designate the route, then the dominant tenant may do so.
5. True. One of the risks associated with the act is not proving the property has been diminished in value by 25 percent or more. The landowner must pay the government’s attorney fees for failing to meet this burden of proof.
6. False. The act applies to the state government from September 1, 1995, to September 1, 1997. After September 1, 1997, it applies both to state and county governments. It never applies to city governments.
7. True. The emergency trespass rule permits trespass in emergencies but makes the intruder liable for surface damages.
8. True. The jury, not the judge, determines the extent a state law or county ordinance may reduce land value.
9. False. The act applies to the actual acreage affected, not to the entire tract.
10. False. Under federal law, landowners are permitted to compensation when all, or substantially all, of the economic value has been removed by the regulation. A 75 percent reduction is not compensable.