Elderly Widow Settles Dispute with Valley Water Corporation -- Companion Suit Remains Pending

RLWPC Client Carolina Ruiz and the East Rio Hondo Water Supply Corporation have settled their long-standing and sometimes ugly dispute relating to the utility's termination of her water service when she refused to grant an easement.

The termination occurred in July 2008 in the days following Hurricane Dolly's landfall in the Rio Grande Valley. Mrs. Ruiz, an 80 year old widow, sustained serious property damage from the Hurricane. In the days immediately following and coinciding with her clean-up efforts, East Rio Hondo Water made good on its prior threats to terminate water service to her home unless she signed an easement granting the utility a FREE 20' swath across her property. Ruiz refused, citing her rights under Texas and federal law to "adequate compensation" for any government taking.

Mrs. Ruiz initially retained a lawyer in San Benito, Texas, but the utility ignored his demands to restore her water service. Unknown to Mrs. Ruiz and her prior counsel, RLWPC had been hired by another elderly couple (Carl "Bud" Parker and wife Janel) whose water service East Rio Hondo Water had also terminated. Upon learning that Trey Wilson had already filed suit and obtained a Court Order requiring the utility to restore water service to the Parker residence, Mrs. Ruiz' lawyer asked RLWPC to assume her representation. Trey Wilson immediately joined Mrs. Ruiz into the Parkers' application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for an Emergency Order compelling East Rio Hondo to provide them with "continuous and adequate" water service. The Application was heard by the TCEQ Commissioners on November 5, 2008, and an Order Compelling the water utility to provide service to the Parkers and Mrs. Ruiz was unanimously issued.

East Rio Hondo Water then filed a civil lawsuit against Ruiz, her daughter and her son in law for breach of contract and other allegations related to the refusal to grant an easement. Ruiz filed a series of counterclaims for breach of contract, negligence, negligence per se, intentional infliction of severe emotional distress, and conversion. She also alleged elder abuse based upon ERHWSC's intentional interruption of her water and her advanced age.

The case was hotly contested, and substantial discovery and motion practice occurred. The suit was settled on confidential terms at a second mediation session that occurred in December 2009. Mrs. Ruiz is relieved that the dispute has been resolved, and looks forward to restoring her previously-peaceful 15 year relationship with East Rio Hondo Water.

The Parker claims remain pending -- despite the death in December of Carl "Bud" Parker -- and that suit is set for trial in March 2010 in Cameron County District Court.