A conflict involving a lease for an AT&T cell tower in Houston, TX, which has been ongoing since 1991, was taken up by the Court of Appeals for the 1st District of Texas, who partially overturned the trial court’s ruling on March 8, according to SE Texas Record. The dispute stemmed from uncertainty about who was the legal owner of the property where the tower was erected and who had the right to accept lease payments from AT&T.
The appeals court determined that the trial court made a mistake when it named Reddy Greensbrook LTD as the legal owner of the property and granted an award for attorneys’ fees totaling $97,500. “Because the record does not reflect that Greensbrook requested affirmative relief on its adverse possession claim, we hold that the trial court erred in declaring Greensbrook the legal owner of the property through adverse possession,” the appeals court said.
Houston Cellular Telephone Co., AT&T’s predecessor in Texas, leased land for construction of a cell tower from Texas Commerce Bank in 1991, according to SE Texas Record. The property changed hands several times in the following years, from Houston North View Park in 1995, to Reddy Greensbrook in 1998. In 2000, AIC Management bought a 0.6 acre of the property and was named as grantee on a corrected deed in 2005, which removed Aldine Independent School District as the property owner.
“AT&T, in its interpleader petition, alleged that it became the successor-in-interest to Houston Cellular with respect to the cell tower and the lease,” Chief Justice Sherry Radack wrote in the appeals court’s opinion. “From 1998 to 2011, AT&T made its lease payments to Greensbrook. In 2010, Greensbrook and AT&T renewed the lease,” Justice Radack added.
The appeals court upheld the trial court’s ruling that AIC Management did not have valid ownership of the property because Aldine IDC did not sign off on the corrected deed, according to SE Texas Record. AIC Management argued to the trial court that it was entitled to the AT&T payments, even warning that it would terminate the lease with AT&T. After the appeals court ruling, neither Greensbrook nor AIC has a valid claim to the property where the tower stands.
March 22, 2018
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