A Beaumont law firm representing 239 people a lawsuit in Orange County seeking damages from the Sabine River Authority of Texas and Louisiana. The suit has been assigned to Judge Dennis Powell’s 163rd State District Court.
The lead plaintiffs on the case, filed by the firm Reaud, Morgan and Quinn, are listed as Perry Bonin, Ace Chandler and Michael Manuel.
The lawsuit was filed in connection with record flooding of the Sabine River in March. The 239 plaintiffs want compensation for the loss of property and belongings in the flood.
According to the lawsuit, the Texas Constitution protects rights and liberties including “no person’s property shall be taken, damaged or destroyed for or applied to public use without adequate compensation.”
The plaintiffs accuse the two state river authorities of “deliberately” releasing water from the Toledo Bend spillway gates of more than 200,000 cubic feet of water per second. The nine gates were open 22 feet each for 24 hours, according to the lawsuit.
The river authorities “knew that harm would result to many thousands of homeowners, business owners, churches and others who owned property downstream,” the lawsuit said.
A similar lawsuit was filed in Newton County after a major Sabine River flood in May 1989. A jury in First State District Court in Newton ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but in 2002, the Texas Ninth Court of Appeals in Beaumont reversed the jury’s decision. Attorney John Cash Smith of Orange represented the Sabine River Authority in that case.
Two weeks ago, Smith told KOGT, “As long as they (Sabine River Authority) follow the law that regulates that dam, they cannot be held liable,” Smith said.
The reservoir was not designed for flood control, he said. “It’s a water storage and electrical production facility. It must have a certain low level and a certain high level,” he said.
In the Ninth Court of Appeals decision, the opinion read that “the deposition testimony of Donnie Henson (a Sabine River Authority employee in 1989) makes it clear that the water being released from the reservoir was not flowing directly onto appellee’s property, but into the Sabine River, via various man-made channels.”
In addition, the opinion said “the Authority never released more water than was entering the reservoir via rainfall.”
The opinion was written by Ninth Court of Appeals Justice Don Burgess, a longtime Bridge City resident who had served as 260th State District Judge in Orange County.
Burgess retired from the state court and is now listed as “of counsel” on the letterhead of Reaud, Morgan and Quinn.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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