Crosstex Energy Services, LP, Crosstex LIG, LLC and Crosstex Processing Services, LLC VS Texas Brine Company, LLC, et al
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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. I Judgment Rendered: AUG a 5 2019' APPEALED FROM THE TWENTY-THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT IN AND FOR THE PARISH OF ASSUMPTION L 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 Texas Brine Company, LLC Peter L. Hilbert, Jr. 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 Browning Oil Company, Inc. Will Montz 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, profits, lost 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 Natural Gas System v. judgment. Pontchartrain, 268 So. 3d at 1064. Thereafter, in Pontchartrain Company, LLC, 2018- 0631 ( La. App. So. 3d _, granting Texas Brine 1 Cir. 7/ 3/ 19), 2019 WL 2865136, * 5, _ this court found that the district court' s October 31, 2017 judgment, Browning Oil Company' s motion for involuntary dismissal and dismissing all of Texas Brine' s claims against it with prejudice, was reasonable and 2 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 216. 2A(2) and ( 8). All costs of this appeal are assessed against Texas Brine Company, LLC. AFFIRMED; TEXAS BRINE' S RECORD GRANTED. 3 MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT
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