October 21, 2026 · Starbase · Land

A judge gives SpaceX title to two Starbase village lots under Texas's 10-year adverse possession law

A Cameron County district judge has given Space Exploration Technologies Corp. title to two lots at the north tip of Starbase's village, on the bay side, under Texas's 10-year adverse possession law. The final judgment, signed Oct. 15, 2026, in the 197th District Court, was recorded with the county clerk on Oct. 16.

• The lots: Lots C and D, Block 75, Unit 1 of the Laguna Madre Beach Subdivision, which takes in much of Starbase's village. The county appraisal roll lists them at about 0.2 acre each. SpaceX already owns 5 of the 8 small lots in that row, per the 2026 roll.
• Who SpaceX sued: the unknown heirs of the lots' owners of record, a married couple who have both died. The heirs were served by publication and never answered. The court appointed a lawyer to represent them and ordered SpaceX to pay that lawyer $500.
• What the court found: "Since April 2016," SpaceX "has held continuous, actual, visible, notorious, distinct, peaceable, and hostile possession of the Property" for more than 10 years and paid all the property taxes on it, the judgment says. The court also found that no one interrupted that possession or claimed the lots in that time.
• The law: Texas gives full title to someone who openly holds land as their own for 10 years if the owner never sues to get it back (Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Sections 16.026 and 16.030).
• Two-year window: the judgment says the heirs are "forever barred" from claiming the lots. But because they were served by publication, Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 329 lets them ask for a new trial within two years after the judgment was signed, or until about Oct. 15, 2028.
• In the record: it's the only court judgment among the 502 records the county clerk's online index lists under SpaceX's name. SpaceX has also bought village lots at sheriff's sales, in 2022 and 2023.

Sources: Cameron County Clerk, doc. 2026-37932, certified copy of the Final Judgment in Cause No. 2026-DCL-02846, 197th District Court (signed Oct. 15, recorded Oct. 16, 2026) · Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Chapter 16 · Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 329 · TxGIO StratMap land parcels, Cameron Appraisal District, 2026 · USDA NAIP imagery, June 2022, via USGS