HOUSTON - More than 100 property owners in Channelview have lost two targets they'd hoped to blame for damage allegedly caused by two crude pipelines.
There are 125 lawsuits in a multidistrict litigation that allege Troy Construction, Enterprise Ship Channel and CenterPoint Energy failed to return the soil that was excavated to bury the pipelines back to its original condition.
As a result of the First District Court of Appeals' ruling on Dec. 31, only one defendant remains - Troy Construction - as the court found claims against Enterprise and CenterPoint were not supported by the plaintiffs' expert report.
"(T)he report makes only collective allegations against 'Enterprise' and 'CenterPoint,' without specifying which of the five Enterprise companies or two CenterPoint companies is intended," Justice Sarah Beth Landau wrote.
"(T)he third Sanders certificate provides no basis for the court to conclude that the MDL parties' claims are not frivolous as to each defendant and should 'proceed in the ordinary course to the next stages of litigation.'"
Four years after the pipelines were finished, two property owners, including Mary Evans, filed a class action lawsuit against the companies involved with their construction. It said Oiltanking Partners and Enterprise had taken soil from a CenterPoint easement to dig the pipelines' trench but when they filled it back in, they put hardened clay on top.
Water ran off the easement on to other properties, the suit claims. Grounds remained swampy for weeks after rain, while trees fell, sidewalks buckled, driveways and backyards sank and walls cracked, the suit says.
As the suit arose out of the actions of professional engineers, it was subject to litigation rules that required a certificate of merit from an expert. The plaintiffs turned to M. Doyle Sanders, an engineer with a degree from Texas A&M University.
He said the companies failed to design the pipeline to prevent the diversion of surface water and failed to preserve the structural integrity of the soil.
Ultimately, the Evans case ceased to be a class action. Instead, 124 property owners filed their own claims, which were grouped with the Evans case in an MDL. A master complaint was supported by Sanders' third certificate of merit.
The MDL court found it sufficient but the First District disagreed because Sanders didn't specify which companies were at fault for which aspects of the construction.
Claims will remain against Troy Construction, which Sanders alleged failed to provide adequate construction techniques that caused improper trench spoil methods, plus excessively compacting backfill with high-density clay.
The MDL court is asked to determine if dismissal of claims against the Enterprise and CenterPoint parties should be with prejudice.