Consolidation Continues in Valley Water Wars

The Judge of the 197th District Court of Cameron County, Texas signed an Order last week transferring the suit filed by East Rio Hondo Water Supply Corporation against an 80 year-old customer to the 357th District Court. That suit, styled ERHWSC vs. Carolina Ruiz, et al, represents the utility's counter-attack against an elderly widow whose water service was interrupted for more than 60 days last summer after she failed to grant the utility an easement it had requested.

Mrs. Ruiz' water service was restored when attorney Trey Wilson obtained an Emergency Order from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality last October. The TCEQ found that the utility's interruption of Mrs. Ruiz' water service was not permitted under the Texas Water Code. In addition, the State ORDERED East Rio Hondo to provide Mrs. Ruiz with continuous and adequate water service.

Mrs. Ruiz had filed suit against the utility in the 357th District Court seeking compensation for the damages she sustained while her service was illegally terminated. In what can only be considered an effort to intimidate Mrs. Ruiz and run-up litigation costs, the utility responded by filing a separate suit against Mrs. Ruiz in the same courthouse where her suit (and a related suit brought by otther ERHWSC customers whose service was also illegally terminated) was already pending.

Judge Migdalia Lopez of the 197th District Court determined that Judge Leonel Alejandro of the 357th District Court was better-suited to hear the utility's complaint because he was already familiar with the dispute. With her ruling, the utility's and its customers' competing claims are all before one court -- the 357th.

Mrs. Ruiz' claims against the utility are set to be heard by a Cameron County jury on November 17, 2009.