Ruling Also Rejects City of Conroe’s Claim for Attorneys’ Fees
CONROE, TX – Feb, 2, 2017 – A Texas state appeals court ruled today that litigation claims against Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District directors should be dismissed with prejudice and that the City of Conroe and others cannot seek attorneys’ fees from the Lone Star district in the ongoing case.
According to the opinion from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth District of Texas in Beaumont, “We hold the Directors established that they were immune from being sued for their official votes and actions in passing the rules the Large Water Producers challenged” in the underlying lawsuit brought by the City of Conroe, Quadvest, L.P., and others. The Court of Appeals’ opinion went on to hold that the City of Conroe, Quadvest, and the other plaintiff’s “claims for attorney’s fees must be dismissed, with prejudice.”
Lone Star Board President Richard J. Tramm said, “This is a major victory for Lone Star. This appeals court ruling moves us another step closer to defeating the City of Conroe’s costly, taxpayer-funded litigation, which is simply intended to weaken our state’s established system of groundwater management. Before today’s ruling, the City of Conroe had previously abandoned 16 of its 18 original lawsuit claims against Lone Star and its directors. This court opinion removes one of the two remaining original claims, and ensures that the plaintiffs, and unfortunately their citizens and water customers, are responsible for funding the remainder of its costly litigation. We look forward to defeating the remaining claims in the trial court.”
The underlying case is “City of Conroe, et al., v. Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, et al.,” Case No. 15-08-08942-CV in the 284th District Court of Montgomery County.