Florida Gas Transmission Company, LLC VS Texas Brine Company, LLC
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NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL FIRST CIRCUIT NO. 2018 CA 0421 FLORIDA GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY, LLC VERSUS TEXAS BRINE COMPANY, LLC, ET AL. Judgment Rendered: AUG 6 5 2019 On Appeal from The 23rd Judicial District Court, Parish of Assumption, State of Louisiana Trial Court No. 34316 The Honorable Thomas J. Kliebert Jr., Judge Presiding Leopold Z. Sher Attorneys for Appellant/ Defendant, James M. Garner Texas Brine Company, LLC Peter L. Hilbert Jr. Jeffrey D. Kessler New Orleans, Louisiana Robert Ryland Percy III Gonzales, Louisiana Eric J. Mayer Houston,, Texas Travis J. Turner Gonzales, Louisiana Matthew J. Randazzo III Attorneys for Christopher B. Bailey Defendant, Will Montz Browning Oil Company, Inc. Appellee/Third-Party Lafayette, Louisiana BEFORE: McDONALD, CRAIN, and LANIER, JJ. CRAIN, J. Texas Brine Company, Florida Gas Transmission Company, Inc. LLC, appeals a summary judgment dismissing LLC' s Company, claims against Browning Oil We affirm. This is one of several lawsuits arising out of a sinkhole in Assumption Parish that developed on or about August 3, 2012, following the collapse of a salt mine cavern. Florida Gas Transmission Company sued Texas Brine, among other defendants, alleging Texas Brine' s salt mining operations caused the collapse of the cavern and the resulting sinkhole, which damaged two of Florida Gas' s nearby pipelines. Oil, Florida Gas amended its petition to include claims against Browning which from 1991 to 2001 operated a nearby oil and gas well, sometimes referred to as the " AH 1 well." Browning Oil moved for summary judgment, asserting Florida Gas could not prove the essential elements of the claims against Browning Oil. The trial court agreed and signed a judgment on August 21, 2017, granting the motion and dismissing Florida Gas' s claims against Browning Oil with prejudice. Texas Brine appeals. In a related proceeding, a different panel of this court affirmed a similar summary judgment dismissing claims filed by Pontchartrain Natural Gas System, K/D/ S Promix, L.L.C. and Acadian Gas Pipeline System against Browning Oil. See Pontchartrain Natural Gas System v. Texas Brine Company, LLC, 18- 0360, 2019WL2865129 ( La. App. 1 Cir. 7/ 3/ 19), So. 3d . For the reasons provided in Pontchartrain Natural Gas System, we affirm the August 21, 2017 summary judgment. We deny Browning Oil' s motion to dismiss the appeal and Texas Brine' s motion to stay, and grant Browning Oil' s motion to cite the appellate record in 201.8 CA 0549. This memorandum opinion is issued in 2 accordance with Uniform Rules— Courts of Appeal, Rule 2- 16. 1B. All costs of this appeal are assessed to Texas Brine. MOTION TO DISMISS DENIED, MOTION TO STAY DENIED; MOTION TO CITE APPELLATE RECORD IN 2018 CA 0549 GRANTED, SUMMARY JUDGMENT AFFIRMED. 91
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