Cullen Earthquake Act

Part 2, Title 10, Chapter 3.6 of the Code of Civil Procedure established the Cullen Earthquake Act.

Section 751.50 provides that, if the boundaries of land owned either by public or by private entities have been disturbed by earth movements so that the lands are in a location different from that at which they were located prior to the disaster, an action in rem may be brought to equitably reestablish boundaries and to quiet title to land within the boundaries so reestablished.

Section 751.51 specifies that an action authorized by this chapter may be commenced in one of three ways. All unknown entities, including owners, lien or interest claimants, heirs, devisees, legatees or assigns, may be described in the caption and complaint as “all entities claiming any interest in or lien upon, the real property herein described or any part of it.”

Section 751.52 authorizes an entity which is a permissive plaintiff under this chapter, to bring a separate action with respect to separate portions of the disaster area of sufficient size to equitably reestablish boundaries without harm to other areas of the common disaster.

Section 751.53 requires the complaint must include six specified items.

Section 751.54 requires that a summons, publication of notice, posting and related matters and procedures are to be governed by the provisions of existing law.

Section 751.55 states that, upon the completion of the service, publication and posting of the summons, the court has complete jurisdiction over the parties plaintiff and the entire real property described in the complaint as intended to be affected by the action.

Section 751.56 provides that an answer to the complaint must be served within 90 days after the first publication of the notice, or further time not exceeding 30 days, as the court for good cause may grant. An answer must contain two specified items.

Section 751.57 states that a party to an action authorized by this chapter may file a notice of the pendency of the action in the form and at the place and with the effects specified by law.

Section 751.58 provides that the vacating of streets, highways or other public ways within or abutting the area affected by the disaster, by the voluntary action of the governmental agency under whose jurisdiction the streets, highways, or ways are vested, for the purpose of making it possible for the court to mitigate the hardships suffered by entities because of the change in land boundaries caused by the disaster can be accomplished by the affected governmental agency expressing the offer in the proceedings followed by the court’s acceptance thereof in an action authorized by this chapter, without complying with any other formalities of law.

Section 751.59 says that, in an action of the type authorized by this chapter, judgment cannot be given by default, but the court must require proof of the facts alleged in the complaint and other pleadings.

Section 751.60 requires the judgment to determine land boundaries, approve the prior filing of an official map, and determine the entity have rights and interests to the parcels.

Section 751.61 requires the court to give effect to the changes in land boundaries caused by the disaster, mitigated, however, so far as can equitably be done by adjustment of land boundaries and by allocating to contiguous lots parts of the land released by a city, county or the state by its voluntary vacation of areas formerly constituting public ways, which vacatings of streets shall be approved by the judgment.

Section 751.62 requires the judgment to be conclusive with respect to land boundaries upon every entity who at the commencement of the action had or claimed an estate, right, title or interest in or to or lien upon a part of the entire area of real property described in the complaint as intended to be affected by the action, and upon every entity claiming under any such person by title subsequent to the commencement of the action.

Section 751.63 requires a certified copy of the judgment to be recorded, at the expense of the plaintiff, in the office of the recorder of the county in which the affected land is situated and constitute constructive notice of the findings and of the official plat referred to.

Section 751.64 says that the remedies provided for by this chapter are cumulative and in addition to any other remedy provided by law for quieting or establishing title to real property or the boundaries of it.

This chapter may be cited as the Cullen Earthquake Act.