Addicks-Barker Harvey Case: Appeals Over, What Is Next

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If your home, rental property or business flooded upstream of the Addicks or Barker dams during Harvey, an experienced Texas attorney can review whether a claim was filed for your property, what the Federal Circuit’s ruling means for it, and what an individual compensation offer would involve. Call or text 24/7. Our referral service is free for the people we serve; the lawyer you hire sets their own fees.

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What Changed, and When

The deadline passed. After the Federal Circuit ruled on December 22, 2025, the government had a limited period to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. In August 2026 it sought more time to decide, as ReduceFlooding reported. On September 4, 2026, the plaintiffs’ firm McGehee ☆ Chang, Feiler announced that the government had decided not to petition, as ReduceFlooding reported the same day. On September 7, KPRC 2 reported that the government would not seek further review, quoting Daniel Charest of Burns Charest LLP, who has represented upstream owners since 2017, to the effect that the Federal Circuit’s ruling is now the governing law for all of the upstream cases.

What the Federal Circuit decided. In Ablan v. United States, No. 23-1363 (Fed. Cir. Dec. 22, 2025), a precedential opinion, a three-judge panel affirmed the Court of Federal Claims’ finding that the government is liable for taking permanent natural-disaster flowage easements across the plaintiffs’ properties. The court reasoned that the Army Corps of Engineers designed and operated the dams to use all available reservoir storage to protect downtown Houston, even at the cost of flooding private land, and that storms severe enough to do so would inevitably recur. The panel also affirmed the denial of class certification. On damages, it affirmed the awards for leasehold advantage and damaged personal property and the offset of FEMA relief the owners had received, but vacated the awards for lost rent and displacement costs and the $0 valuation placed on one owner’s easement, sending those questions back to the trial court.

How the case got here. Hurricane Harvey struck in late August 2017. Suits by upstream owners were filed within weeks and consolidated in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims under Sub-Master Docket No. 17-9001L, In re Upstream Addicks and Barker (Texas) Flood-Control Reservoirs. A liability trial on 13 test properties was held in Houston in May 2019, and the court found the government liable in a decision dated December 17, 2019. A damages trial on six bellwether properties followed, and in 2022 the court awarded those owners a total of $454,535.03 plus interest from the date of taking, according to the Federal Circuit’s summary of the record. The government appealed at the end of December 2022; the Federal Circuit’s decision came three years later. A separate group of downstream owners, who flooded when the Corps released water through the dams, lost their case in the Court of Federal Claims in February 2020. The September 4 development concerns the upstream group only.

What happens next. KPRC 2 reported that the owners’ attorneys and the government’s experts spent the summer building a settlement framework that would sort properties into categories and apply a formula to produce individual offers, using factors such as flood depth, ground-floor size, the age and pre-Harvey condition of the home, and the personal property destroyed, with prior insurance payments and other reimbursements affecting the figures. The framework must clear the government’s internal approval process, including the Department of Justice. Counsel’s best-case estimate for having the framework resolved is the first quarter of 2027; that is an estimate for the framework, not for payments. ReduceFlooding reported that Judge Richard A. Hertling, who now presides over the docket, has said he wants to move quickly and is expected to hold another conference in Houston in October 2026.

Who in Texas This Reaches

Owners of homes and businesses inside the Addicks and Barker reservoir flood pools west of Houston — land the Corps did not buy when the dams were built and that developers later built on. KPRC 2 describes the affected group as thousands of upstream property owners; a 2022 report carried on the plaintiffs’ case site put the potential number at an estimated 10,000.
Owners who already filed a claim in the Court of Federal Claims and have been waiting under the litigation stay while the test cases were tried and appealed.
Owners who flooded but never filed. Whether any avenue remains for them is a question about timing rules and the facts of their property, discussed below.
Heirs and estates. Some owners have died since 2017; KPRC 2’s reporting includes a family pursuing the claim of a father who died a week after the storm.
Owners who sold, and buyers who bought after Harvey. Earlier rulings in the case addressed which owners hold a claim, including the position of people who bought after August 30, 2017, according to updates posted by the plaintiffs’ counsel.
Leaseholders and renters in 2017. The bellwether awards affirmed by the Federal Circuit included compensation for leasehold advantage.

What This Changes Legally

Liability is settled for the test cases. With no Supreme Court petition, the Federal Circuit’s decision stands as the law of the case: the government took a permanent flowage easement and owes just compensation under the Fifth Amendment. Counsel told KPRC 2 that individual owners still have to show that their own claims fit within the framework the test cases established.
There is no class. The Federal Circuit affirmed the denial of class certification. Each owner’s claim is an individual case on the sub-master docket. The court’s own short-form complaint (updated November 2025) is the form by which an individual plaintiff adopts the master complaint; whether it can still be used for a new claim is a question about the timing rules below.
What is compensable, and what is not. The affirmed awards cover the value of the permanent flowage easement, destroyed personal property, and leasehold advantage, with interest from the date of taking. The Federal Circuit vacated the awards for lost rent and displacement costs, and the plaintiffs’ counsel has described consequential losses such as lost rental income, lost business profits and temporary relocation costs as not recoverable in a takings case. FEMA relief the owner received is offset against the award.
Timing rules exist. Claims against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims are subject to a six-year limitations period under 28 U.S.C. § 2501. When a takings claim accrues, and how that period applies to an owner who has not filed, are legal questions that depend on the facts and on how the courts have treated this case; they are not answered by this page.
Offers, when they come, are individual decisions. Under the process KPRC 2 described, each eligible owner would receive an offer and decide whether to accept it or keep litigating for a different amount. Nothing about that process has been finalized as of September 8, 2026.

None of this decides any particular claim. What a property is worth under the model, what offsets apply, and whether a given owner holds a live claim all turn on the record for that one property.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

This page is information, not legal advice, and it is not a prediction about any claim or any offer. What a lawyer can review includes:

For an owner with a filed claim: a lawyer can explain what the categories in a settlement model are likely to turn on, what documents support the valuation of the property and its contents, how insurance and FEMA payments are treated, and how to weigh an offer against continuing to litigate.
For an owner who is not sure whether a claim was filed: a lawyer can check the Court of Federal Claims docket and the engagement paperwork from 2017 and 2018.
For an owner who never filed: a lawyer can review the limitations rules and the case’s prior orders and explain whether any option exists for that property.
For heirs: a lawyer can explain how a claim passes through an estate and what the court requires to substitute a representative.
For someone who bought or sold the property after Harvey: a lawyer can review the deed, the sale documents and the case’s rulings on who holds the claim.
For a 2017 tenant or business leaseholder: a lawyer can review whether a leasehold interest was among the interests the case covers.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The court is expected to convene in Houston in October, and the framework for offers is being negotiated now. Once a process is approved, it will come with its own steps and dates set by the court, and placing a property in the right category will depend on proof: photographs of the flooding and the damage, repair receipts, pre-Harvey appraisals or listings, an inventory of destroyed contents, and the insurance and FEMA records that affect the offsets. Nine years is long enough for paperwork to scatter and for memories to fade. It is best to talk with a lawyer early, while there is time to assemble the record, rather than after an offer or a deadline has arrived.

Get a Texas Property Rights Lawyer — Now

A lawyer can review your property’s claim, explain what the Federal Circuit’s ruling means for it, and help you prepare for the compensation stage. Call or text 24/7. Get connected with an experienced property rights lawyer near you. Our referral service is free for the people we serve.