Sec. 11.086. OVERFLOW CAUSED BY DIVERSION OF WATER. (a) No person may divert or impound the natural flow of surface waters in this state, or permit a diversion or impounding by him to continue, in a manner that damages the property of another by the overflow of the water diverted or impounded.
(b) A person whose property is injured by an overflow of water caused by an unlawful diversion or impounding has remedies at law and in equity and may recover damages occasioned by the overflow.
(c) The prohibition of Subsection (a) of this section does not in any way affect the construction and maintenance of levees and other improvements to control floods, overflows, and freshets in rivers, creeks, and streams or the construction of canals for conveying water for irrigation or other purposes authorized by this code. However, this subsection does not authorize any person to construct a canal, lateral canal, or ditch that obstructs a river, creek, bayou, gully, slough, ditch, or other well-defined natural drainage.
(d) Where gullies or sloughs have cut away or intersected the banks of a river or creek to allow floodwaters from the river or creek to overflow the land nearby, the owner of the flooded land may fill the mouth of the gullies or sloughs up to the height of the adjoining banks of the river or creek without liability to other property owners.
Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2207, ch. 870, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
101
cases (
18 in the last 5 years), 1983–2026 · leading case:
City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802 (Tex. 2005).
City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802 (Tex. 2005).
· cites it 2× “See Tex. Water Code § 11.086(a), (b) (providing that "[n]o person may divert or impound the natural flow of surface waters in this state .”
Dietrich v. Goodman, 123 S.W.3d 413 (Tex. App. 2003).
· cites it 8× “Asserting claims of negligence, violations of the Texas Water Code § 11.086, and trespass, the Dietrichs filed suit against the Goodmans.”
City of Keller v. Wilson, 86 S.W.3d 693 (Tex. App. 2002).
· cites it 3× “Wilson in which he stated that the increase in water flow on his property had knocked over a fence, created additional ditches, and rendered the land unusable for farming or livestock.”
Ted Lazarides, in His Off. Capacity v. Grady Farris, 367 S.W.3d 788 (Tex. App. 2012).
· cites it 2× “Farris has requested both: (1) a declaratory judgment that the back-to-front drainage rule violates the Ordinance as well as Texas Water Code § 11.086, and (2) a prospective injunction prohibiting La-zarides from enforcing or applying the back-to-front drainage rule in the…”
Harris Cnty. Flood Control Dist. v. Kerr, 499 S.W.3d 793 (Tex. 2016).
“, concurring) 1 ("[W]hen a private development floods neighboring land, the owner of the damaged property will ordinarily have recourse against the private parties causing the damage.”
Anders v. Mallard & Mallard, Inc., 817 S.W.2d 90 (Tex. App. 1991).
· cites it 4× “Appellants sued Mallard for negligence, gross negligence, conspiracy, failure to warn plaintiffs of the danger of flooding, and violation of Tex.WateR Code Ann. § 11.086 (Vernon 1988).”
Mitchell v. Blomdahl, 730 S.W.2d 791 (Tex. App. 1987).
· cites it 6× “Arnold and Pamela Blomdahl filed suit against Raymond Mitchell, alleging that Mitchell wrongfully impounded surface waters in violation of Tex.Water Code Ann. § 11.086 (Supp.1987), causing the Blomdahls' residential property to flood.”
— Tex. Water Code § 11.086(a) — 26 cases
City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802 (Tex. 2005).
“See Tex. Water Code § 11.086(a), (b) (providing that "[n]o person may divert or impound the natural flow of surface waters in this state .”
Dietrich v. Goodman, 123 S.W.3d 413 (Tex. App. 2003).
“Asserting claims of negligence, violations of the Texas Water Code § 11.086, and trespass, the Dietrichs filed suit against the Goodmans.”
— Tex. Water Code § 11.086(b) — 3 cases
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.