Opinion
NO. 2016 CW 1563
02-21-2017
CROSSTEX ENERGY SERVICES, LP, CROSSTEX LIG, LLC AND CROSSTEX PROCESSING SERVICES, LLC v. TEXAS BRINE COMPANY, LLC, ET AL.
In Re: Legacy Vulcan, LLC f/k/a Legacy Vulcan Corp., applying for supervisory writs, 23rd Judicial District Court, Parish of Assumption, No. 34202. BEFORE: PETTIGREW, McDONALD, AND CALLOWAY, JJ.
WRIT GRANTED. The district court judgment of November 17, 2016 which denied the exception of lis pendens filed by third-party defendant Legacy Vulcan, LLC f/k/a Legacy Vulcan Corporation, is reversed. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Article 531 provides that when two or more suits are pending in a Louisiana court on the same transaction or occurrence, between the same parties in the same capacities, the defendant may have all but the first suit dismissed by excepting thereto. Third-party plaintiff and respondent herein, Texas Brine Company, L.L.C., has filed prior third-party demands, as well as a direct action, against Legacy Vulcan, LLC in the same capacities and arising from the same transaction or occurrence. The first-filed third-party demand filed by Texas Brine Company, LLC against Legacy Vulcan, LLC was in Susan Russo Marchand v. Texas Brine Company, L.L.C., 23rd Judicial District Court, Parish of Assumption, Division "C", Docket No. 34,270. Therefore, the latter filed third-party demands should have been dismissed as to Legacy Vulcan, LLC, without prejudice. The declinatory exception of lis pendens is granted, and the third-party demands and direct action filed by Texas Brine Company, L.L.C. against Legacy Vulcan, LLC, apart from the Susan Russo Marchand matter, are dismissed without prejudice.
CAC
JTP
JMM
COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT /s/_________
DEPUTY CLERK OF COURT
FOR THE COURT
Calloway, J., serving as judge pro tempore of the Court of Appeal, First Circuit, by special appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court.