Corporatocracy Watch | Matthews & Associates | Drug Injury Lawyers

$3 Million Verdict in Texas Fracking Case

DALLAS — Plaintiffs Bob and Lisa Parr won a $3 million jury award in the first fracking verdict in Texas April 22. The Parrs sued Aruba Petroleum in 2011 for fracking operations which fouled the family’s 40-acre ranch property, their home and quality of life, sickened them and their pets and livestock. (See the Parr – 11th Amended Petition.)

The verdict included $275,000 for the Parr’s property loss of market value and $2 million for past physical pain and suffering by Bob and Lisa Parr and their daughter,  $250,000 for future physical pain and suffering, $400,000 for past mental anguish.

“They’re vindicated,” said Mr. Matthews. “I’m really proud of the family that went through what they went through and said, ‘I’m not going to take it anymore. It takes guts to say, ‘I’m going to stand here and protect my family from an invasion of our right to enjoy our property.’ It’s not easy to go through a lawsuit and have your personal life uncovered and exposed to the extent this family went through.”

“The jury has shown again that, more often than not, juries get it right,” said Mr. Capshaw.

Aruba argued that it had complied with air quality and drilling safety guidelines set by the Texas Railroad Commission and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TDECQ). Aruba told jurors the Parrs can’t prove it was one of Aruba’s wells that caused them to get sick because the gas wells it drilled, eight within a mile of the Parr land and 14 within two miles, are all over a landscape which features several dozens of other drilling rig operations.

Aruba Petroleum was represented by Dallas attorneys Ben Barron and Michael Mazzone.

The case is Parr et al. v. Aruba Petroleum Inc., case number CC-11-01650-E, in the County Court at Law No. 5 of Dallas County, Texas.

Corporatocracy Watch | Matthews & Associates | Drug Injury Lawyers.