Texas family wins $2.9 million fracking lawsuit, setting stage for more lawsuits to follow

[freshwest]

By Tom Boggioni
Friday, May 30, 2014

A north Texas family won a $2.9 million lawsuit against a Plano-based oil company after convincing a jury that emissions from the company’s fracking operations were making them sick.

According to Inside Climate News, the Parr family of Wise County, Texas, filed 13 complaints with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), between February 2010 and July 2011, claiming that air pollution from gas and oil operations near their ranch were responsible for breathing difficulties, nausea, nosebleeds, ringing ears, and rashes...

Despite being warned by their attorney that lawsuits against oil and gas industry rarely succeed, the Parrs’ sued Aruba Petroleum and last month a Dallas County jury awarded them $2.9 million in damages after finding the company “intentionally created a private nuisance” affecting the family’s health.

Robert Percival, director of the University of Maryland’s Environmental Law Program said, “When you don’t have a strong regulatory system, a system to prevent what happened to this family, the only place left to turn for help is the courts...”

More at link:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/30/texas-family-wins-2-9-million-fracking-lawsuit-setting-stage-for-more-lawsuits-to-follow/

[elleng]

1. GOOD NEWS.

Let's see what happens if the oil company appeals.

[leftyohiolib]

2. of course they will. they will appeal it right to the corp friendly scotus. these people won nothing

yet if at all. it is why you need to vote in democrats regardless of how you feel about them

[truedelphi]

4. Except we really need to vigilantly examine the SCOTUS Democrats - they often are

More than willing to sell out lower middle class people and the middle class for the sake of "respecting the entitlements of Corporate Personhood."

In fact, in at least one of the right for a sick individual to utilize Medical Marijuana in a state where voters had approved such a use, Dems on SCOTUS were worse than their Republican counterparts.

The Democrats on SCOTUS were also worse than the Republicans in the case of "eminent domain" where a lower middle class New Englander wanted to hold on to her house, and she did not feel that eminent domain should allow a damn country club to take it from her. (Highways and hospitals have traditionally gotten eminent domain rights, as they serve a public good, but for an individual to be beholden to a country club, where only the more affluent meet, is beyond the pale.)

[leftyohiolib]

8. well i cant find either of those stories to read but i cant see republicans on the scotus

being better than the dems on scotus. they have different ideologies like corporations are people

[Blanks]

9. Here's one of the stories.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

[truedelphi]

11. That is the one on eminent domain vs a New England homeowner.

And the Dems were worse than the Republicans on that one.

Thank you for the citation.

[Blanks]

10. Here's the other...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich

[truedelphi]

12. Although that is indeed a valuable reference for those of us concerned about

Corporate Control over Medicinal and Recreational Marijuana, vs The DOJ and Big Prison, Big Cartels, and Big Pharmaceuticals, it isn't the one I was thinking of.

Later this weekend when i have the time, I will research it.

[Blanks]

17. I remembered the 'eminent domain' ruling..

I hadn't heard of the medical marijuana ruling. I just grabbed the first one that came up. Sorry it isn't the one you were thinking about.

[DeSwiss]

13. ''...it is why you need to vote in democrats regardless of how you feel about them...''

Talk about damning with faint praise!

A more telling indictment of the sorry state of things could not be found. In defending the need to vote for Dems, you've succeeded only in demonstrating the utter futility of it all.

That's not a democracy, nor even a republic.

- It's a fashion show. And we're picking the one's we think look the best......

[Enthusiast]

26. +1 an entire shit load.

[Dustlawyer]

20. The Texas Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court will find for the company if this was filed

in state court. Corporations and especially the U.S. Chamber of Commerce stocked the Courts of Appeals as well as the state and Federal Supreme Courts. People cannot receive much justice these days. If we are lucky enough to convince a jury (successfully identify and strike all Tea Party types) and get a favorable judgment, most of the time the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court takes it away. People were snookered to support tort reform after so many shows like 20/20 with John Stossel ran stories of "Jack Pot Justice!" The most famous mis-representation was the McDonalds hot coffee case. Stella Liebeck spilled coffee in her lap while parked trying to remove the lid to add cream and sugar. The coffee was served just below the boiling point because McDonalds found they could get twice as much coffee from the same amount of beans as well as it stayed fresher much longer. Mrs. Liebeck almost died and had to have her Labia and Clitoris removed due to 3rd degree burns. The media made it seem like she got money she didn't deserve and that frivolous lawsuits were rampant. Tort reform spread like wildfire just like they wanted. By the way, the Judge thought the verdict for 1 day of world-wide coffee sales (2 million) was too much for the loss of her sexual organs and disfigurement so he did a remititur and lowered the amount to $900,000 before attorneys fees and case expenses.
Now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has 5 courthouse/online newspapers that are free outside the jury assembly rooms so when you are bored waiting to be sent to a court for jury duty, or while the Judge is meeting with the attorneys and you have a break you can read their slanted stories. It usually happens that the paper has a story on just the kind of case that is about to start trial and for which you may be picked to serve on, imagine that!! I know because the very first issue of the Southeasttexasrecord.com had 2 front page stories. One on how medical malpractice was driving Texas doctors out of state (trial on a medical malpractice case was starting across the hall from us, and a story on frivolous asbestos cases. Our trial involved a widow who's husband died of mesothelioma which is only caused by either asbestos or Chernobyl type levels of radiation exposure.
Our rights are silently disappearing as the media shapes our views to get us to do what the Plutocracy wants. The only way to fix this is for everyone who cares about an issue, whether it is gun regulation, LGBTV rights, women's rights, climate change, Wall Street criminality, voting rights, immigration..., needs to demand complete campaign finance reform and publicly funded elections. These issues won't be solved unless we stop these corporations and their business associations from being able to bribe our politicians with campaign money! They do not represent us any longer because we don't write the checks, simple as that!

[mountain grammy]

24. and it really is as simple as that. I will expect this decision to be overturned

either by the trial judge or the next one up the line, or the next one.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

32. That bit about the coffee burns lawsuit and the way the corporate media has convinced us that

it's all just greedy, unreasonable people suing is largely unrecognized.

As you say, the Plutocracy controls the what most Americans think on many issues. But not just in blatant form, as with Fox-SoCalled-News, RushSlimeball, etc. Much about the kind of people we are supposed to be and what we should believe is transmitted in the subtext of TV sitcoms, dramas, talk shows, and "reality" shows, as well as in the commercials. It's insidious.

And yeah, I can't imagine that this award-bestowing verdict will stand. And people's right to sue in the first place will be constricted further though the access and influence that big bucks can buy.

[Jim__]

3. "Aruba has asked the presiding judge to reverse the jury’s verdict."

I hope the jury verdict stands. But, we'll see ...

[DhhD]

31. Fascism like this, needs to be brought to the attention of the public on a grand scale. The 2014

Election Campaign is just such a scale. Texans are choking on the gas in the air and angry about earthquakes tearing up their homes. And as adults we can learn from out neighbors, not having to undergo the events ourselves. Neighbors are starting to ban together to have their air and ground studied before the city or county can approve a drilling site to prove that changes happened AFTER the drilling and injections.

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-02-04/swarms-of-earthquakes-shake-up-shale-gas-fields

[Octafish]

5. Don't worry, Third Way Team! SCROTUS is on the case.

And by the time it ends up there, fracking will be a way of life and clean water a distant memory for those who can no longer afford to pay Carlyle Group for such rarities.

Oh, and the litigants? May they live long enough to collect with interest. Going by history, cough EXXON Valdez, they won't collect much.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. Profoundly justified...

...pessimism.

[WCLinolVir]

6. Yesssss!!!!

[TexasTowelie]

14. Here is the original story that I posted in April:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/107817337

[freshwest]

21. Wish you'd put in GD. For some reason search didn't show the Raw Story title as already posted.

It really is of national interest, not just a state story.

[TexasTowelie]

22. Yes, sometimes it is a fine line as to which forum to choose on some posts and I believe that I

posted that article while I was at the library in Wharton. I didn't have an Internet connection at this apartment yet so I was racing against the time limits at the library to get anything posted at all. I was also coming off the OD attempt a few weeks earlier so I was trying to stay in the safe forum because GD can get nasty on some issues.

The fact that Raw Story is more than a month behind does show it is a slow news cycle though.

[ancianita]

15. Thank god, a legal precedent for proving intent. This is big. Corporations lose before juries.

[love_katz]

16. Yahoo!

Now, we just have to hope that it sticks!

[blkmusclmachine]

18. POISON

[Oilwellian]

19. Excellent

Juries are one of the only powers we have left.

[sheshe2]

23. DU Rec!

Thank you freshwest. I certainly hope that this sets the stage for more suits.

Let's give mother earth a chance as well as the peoples that inhabit her.

[Cha]

25. Wow, this is great, fresh.. thank you! nm

[tofuandbeer]

27. This was a rude awakening for corporations in Texas...

now they know they need to change or buy the court system.

[DFW]

28. They HAVE bought the court system

They just haven't found out yet how to buy juries.

I'm sure that after this, they'll be working on it.

[Dustlawyer]

30. That's just it, they don't need the juries. The Judges rule what evidence comes in and what doesn't

They can shape the outcome of the trial. If that fails then they still have the Courts of Appeals.
I helped a buddy with a bad faith life insurance case a few years ago. It seems that the Life Insurance company decided not to read the medical records that THEY HAD IN THEIR POSSESSION after signing a policy. They had 2 years under the law to contest the policy after it went into effect. They waited 4 even though the woman had died after 2 1/2 and the family attorney had made the claim for payment. The insurance company tried to Post Claim Underwrite where they then went through her records and found where the woman had high blood pressure even though on the tape recording of the initial phone sale (baby crying in background and loud TV) the lady denied having hypertension. English was a second language and she was uneducated. I am sure she didn't know what hypertension meant. They denied and the case was litigated for 8 years. Texas law has been the same on this for almost 150 years, you cannot wait until they pass away and make a claim to bother to check the medical records. They had all of the information and chose to collect the premiums instead of refuse the policy. They did read enough of the records right after they got them to discover she smoked and tripled the premiums. She paid the higher premiums. Their attorney appealed the verdict trying to overturn 150 years of established law. Normally they would settle the verdict of 1.2 million (life insurance policy was for $500,000). They only offered $15,000! It has been 11 years now, her husband is terminally ill, their oldest daughter died in a car accident so he is raising her 4 kids on social security. The insurance companies attorney is a huge Republican fundraiser in Texas and has raised money for all of the Texas Supreme Court Justices. This might explain a $15,000 offer on a 1.2 million dollar verdict, except the Defendant so clearly violated 150 years of precedent. Think he knows something we do not?

[DhhD]

34. Every city in Texas must release its water quality report. So, yes, they are working on it.

Neighbors need to band together and have their water tested at the same time that the water samples being taken for the report are being taken and after the slightest seismic disturbance, especially along the edges of affluent communities that do not allow fracking or a pipeline to already fracked wells. Even cities that do not allow fracking allowed some companies to frack anyway-Colleyville; but no pipeline until the companies can gain right-of-way through state property waterway during the next flood.

[DFW]

29. Most European countries still won't allow fracking

Cameron's England is looking into it, but the Tories will seal their doom the first artificial earthquake or flame-emitting faucet that occurs. Their coalition with the Liberal Democrats will collapse, too. Howard is advising the Liberal Democrats, and he will most likely advise them to dissolve the coalition, and with it, Cameron's term as Prime Minister, if they try to approve fracking in the UK. The British press practically invented sensationalism, and they would have a field day with the first fracking-caused environmental disaster.

As for Germany, just look at a map, and then look at the population. We just don't have ROOM here for contaminated ground water and earthquakes. There's no room here for much more of ANYTHING.

[cali]

33. Yay, yay, yay. thanks for posting this very good news.

[Jefferson23]

35. Recommend. n/t

[Swede Atlanta]

36. Cheney and company will ensure a retroactive law is passed to protect

their interests. I doubt this will ever see the light of day. The oil and gas industry has the Congress and the President by the proverbial "private parts" and will squeeze and tug when they need to to ensure their continued profits.

These people don't care about the planet or the people that inhabit it. They are only interested in the $$$$ they can earn. Their first and only love is money. They say Jesus is their God but we know it is the almighty dollar.