Two houses in Travis County took their water from the same well. The well stood on one lot, and the water reached the house next door under a “Well Use Easement Agreement” the previous owners signed in 1995. In January 2015, weeks after a new couple bought the lot with the well, they told the neighbors the agreement gave their property no right to the water, and that unless they paid an annual fee, the well piping would be disconnected and the supply cut off.
The neighbors, who live on the adjoining property, sued for breach of the well-use agreement and for trespass and asked for an injunction. The new owners countersued.
Then, court records show, the couple refused to let the neighbors’ surveyor onto the property, cleared trees off the tract they had agreed to sell, installed barbed wire around the well and posted no-trespassing signs.
What each side claimed
The neighbors rested on the 1995 agreement and on the settlement meant to replace it. After the trees came down they amended their pleadings: destroying trees on the tract they had contracted to buy was a breach that lowered its value. Their trial evidence put that loss at $14,000…