Crosstex Energy Services, LP, Crosstex LIG, LLC and Crosstex Processing Services, LLC v. Texas Brine Company, LLC ( 2019 )

NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
STATE OF LOUISIANA
COURT OF APPEAL
FIRST CIRCUIT
2018 CA 0900
CROSSTEX ENERGY SERVICES, LP, CROSSTEX LICy LLC AND
CROSSTEX PROCESSING SERVICES, LLC
VERSUS
TEXAS BRINE COMPANY, LLC, ET AL.
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Judgment Rendered: AUG a 5 2019'
APPEALED FROM THE TWENTY-THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT
L IN AND FOR THE PARISH OF ASSUMPTION
STATE OF LOUISIANA
DOCKET NUMBER 34202
HONORABLE THOMAS J. KLIEBERT, JR., JUDGE
Leopold Z. Sher Attorneys for Appellant/Defendant/
James M. Garner Third -Party Plaintiff
Peter L. Hilbert, Jr. Texas Brine Company, LLC
Jeffrey D. Kessler
New Orleans, Louisiana
Travis J. Turner
Gonzales, Louisiana
Eric J. Mayer
Houston, Texas
Robert Ryland Percy, III
Gonzales, Louisiana
Matthew J. Randazzo, III Attorneys for Appellee/
Christopher B. Bailey Third -Party Defendant
Will Montz Browning Oil Company, Inc.
Lafayette, Louisiana
BEFORE: McDONALD, CRAIN, and PENZATO, JJ.
McDONALD, J.
This appeal relates to one of several lawsuits arising from the August 3,
2012 sinkhole that developed near Bayou Come in Assumption Parish, Louisiana.
In this appeal, Texas Brine Company, LLC, defendant and third -party plaintiff,
appeals an October 31, 2017 district court judgment dismissing all of its claims
with prejudice against Browning Oil Company, Inc., a third -party defendant in this
litigation, on a motion for involuntary dismissal. Texas Brine also challenges the
pre-trial summary judgment that dismissed Texas Brine' s claims against Browning
Oil Company under pre -1996 law.
This court recently held in Pontchartrain Natural Gas System v. Texas
Brine Company, LLC, 2018- 0606 ( La. App. 1 Cir. 12/ 21/ 18), 268 So. 3d 1058,
1063, writ denied, 2019- 0526 ( La. 6/ 7/ 19), _ So. 3d_, that since all of Texas
Brine' s property and equipment was allegedly damaged after the sinkhole
occurred, and the remaining third -party tort claims for litigation expenses, lost
profits, and environmental -response costs certainly occurred after the sinkhole
emerged in August 2012, the substantive law in effect at that time applies. In that
case,
this court found that the district court did not err in granting summary
judgment in favor of the non -operators ( Reliance Corporation, LORCA
Corporation, Colorado Crude Company, and Sol Kirschner), and dismissing all of
Texas Brine' s third -party tort claims, including indemnity and contribution, against
each of the non -operators, and affirmed the district court judgment.
Pontchartrain, 268 So. 3d at 1064.
Thereafter, in Pontchartrain Natural Gas System v. Texas Brine
Company, LLC, 2018- 0631 ( La. App. 1 Cir. 7/ 3/ 19), 2019 WL 2865136, * 5, _
So. 3d _, this court found that the district court' s October 31, 2017 judgment,
granting Browning Oil Company' s motion for involuntary dismissal and
dismissing all of Texas Brine' s claims against it with prejudice, was reasonable and
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not clearly wrong, and this court affirmed the district court judgment. Further, this
court found that upholding the district court' s grant of Browning Oil Company' s
motion for involuntary dismissal negated any need for further discussion or
analysis of Texas Brine' s pre -1996 claims against Browning Oil Company.
Pontchartrain Natural Gas System, 2019 WL 2865136 at * 6, So. 3d at
The judgment in this case is based on the same evidence considered in
Pontchartrain Natural Gas System, 2018- 0631, and we affirm the October 31,
2017 district court judgment involuntarily dismissing all of Texas Brine' s claims
against Browning Oil Company with prejudice for the reasons stated therein.
Texas Brine' s September 24, 2018 motion to supplement the record with exhibits is
granted, and this court' s clerk of court is hereby instructed to supplement the
record with the exhibits referenced in and attached to the motion. This summary
opinion is issued in accordance with Uniform Rules -Courts of Appeal, Rule 2-
16. 2A(2) and ( 8). All costs of this appeal are assessed against Texas Brine
Company, LLC.
AFFIRMED; TEXAS BRINE' S MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT
RECORD GRANTED.
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