by Logan Hawkes

A rash of lawsuits filed in South Texas has port officials in Brownsville, Port Isabel and other ports of call concerned that legal battles between trail lawyers and dredging companies could spell disaster for the Texas shipping industry, a measure that would cost the local ports and the state-at-large thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in port revenues.

At issue are dredging companies that are contracted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep shipping channels, like the Port of Brownsville channel, open to tankers and freighters who make regular calls to the ports. Because of what dredging companies and port officials are calling "lawsuit abuse", dredging companies are reluctant to bid on Army Corp of Engineer projects, citing a growing trend in South Texas to target the maritime industry with worker injury lawsuits.

"We're talking about major lawsuit abuse that is affecting port business not only in South Texas, but at every port in the state," reported Bob Cornelison, Port Director, Port Isabel/San Benito Navigation District.

Cornelison was in Austin last week to attend a legislative hearing on the issue.

"Out of 171 lawsuits filed nationally since 2003 against eight dredging companies, 124- of theses were filed in Texas, and 107 of them were filed in just 4 South Texas counties. There are a disproportionate number of lawsuits filed in South Texas as compared to lawsuits filed nationwide," he added.

According to a Web site dedicated to the port's position on the issue, maritimejobsfortexas.org, from 2003-2007, 72% of all personal injury lawsuits against dredgers were filed in Texas even though many of these companies do business all over the United States. And 86% of all the Texas suits are filed in Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron and Zapata counties.

"What's happening is the dredging companies are afraid to do business in Texas. One law firm alone had filed the vast majority of these lawsuits in Texas, and they are targeting court venues in South Texas that have a reputation for taking the plaintiff™s position on the issue, "says State Representative Corbin Van Arsdale (R- Houston), author of State House Bill 1602, a proposed bill that would limit the ability of trial lawyers to select venues that support their position.

Arsdale says 46 states have already adopted similar legislation and that the move is necessary to protect the interests of all Texas ports and the Texas maritime industry.

Port Isabel/San Benito port director Bob Cornelison traveled to Austin this week to testify in a special hearing held Wednesday. He was asked by the Texas Port Association (TPA) to represent Texas ports at that hearing. Cornelison is the past president for the TPA.

"People don't realize, I think, what an impact this [is] going to have on coastal communities. For example, dredging projects in the Brownsville channel at one time supplied a good amount of quality sand to be used to fight beach erosion on South Padre Island. But because of lawsuit abuse, dredging companies are reluctant to even bid on dredging projects in Texas, and the recent dredging of the Brownsville channel resulted in the sand being deposited offshore," he said.

"And until this recent dredging project, for which there was only one bidder, ships using the port in Brownsville had to light-load their cargo, meaning they couldn't even make it all the way up the channel to the port with a full load, That's going to drive shipping traffic away," he added.

Cornelison says if lawsuit abuse continues to target the maritime industry in Texas, ports are going to suffer substantial losses in their workforce. He cites that the 5,400 jobs at the Port of Brownsville as an example of how important the port industry is to the local community.

"If we lose jobs because ships can't make it into ports, what's going to happen to the local economy and unemployment rates locally?" he asks.

Maritime officials in Texas say it's getting harder to attract bidders for dredging projects in Texas, from Port Arthur south to Brownsville. Recently, two essential port improvement projects were canceled due to problems related to Texas lawsuit abuse. If lawsuits continue to cause dredging bids to become unreasonably high on Texas projects, then the Army Corps of Engineers may not undertake those projects and federal money may go to other states. Supporters of HB 1602 say there is also evidence that the cist if lawsuits and the fear if further financial harm by lawsuits is causing dredgers not to bid on Texas projects.

"When that happens, Texas ports are in real trouble," Cornelison reports.

Texas ports handle almost 15,000 vessels, or about 20% of the national total. Every year, nearly 300 million tons of cargo passes through Texas ports, directly and indirectly generating nearly one million jobs for Texans and more than $178 billion in business sales, Types of cargo include passengers, crude oil, lumber and paper, steel, agricultural products, consumer goods, chemicals, containers, aggregate, automobiles, construction equipment and strategic military cargo. Texas ports are home to a vibrant commercial seafood business and serve the offshore drilling and recreational boating industries.

Supporters of HB 1602 claim that unless maritime lawsuit abuse is addressed in Texas, the state could suffer proportionate cuts in jobs and revenue.

Attorney Anthony Buzbee of the Buzbee Law Firm in Friendswood, Texas, near Galveston, is one of the lawyers who have filed a large number of lawsuits against dredging companies in South Texas. Attempts to reach Buzbee for comment were unsuccessful this week.

But Darren McKinney, a spokesman for the pro-business American Tort Reform Association, says Buzbee and other trial lawyers are taking advantage of the law in Texas that allows maritime workers to file lawsuits in their county of residence, where local judges and jurors are "going to favor the defendant's position."

"Congress and various states have passed laws limiting plaintiff's flexibility to choose favored venues. And this [is] what we need in Texas. There has been a surge in the Rio Grande Valley of lawsuits on behalf of seamen alleging injuries on dredging vessels from Florida to New Jersey to Bahrain," reports McKinney. "Under the reforms called for in HB 1602, this would change."

In civil matters, plaintiffs generally must file suit where an alleged wrong occurred or where a defendant is based. That is also generally the case in maritime matters, and there are complex rules for figuring out which venue is closest to the site of an accident at sea. Texas, though, has a uniquely flexible rule, allowing maritime plaintiffs to file suit in the county where they reside. Because of this "loophole", maritime companies that hire workers are exposed to lawsuits.

Maritime companies report a recent surge in Valley suits. Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. faced its first-ever Valley suit in 2002, but says that it has since been sued 33 times there.

"We have been hiring Valley workers for 20 years," says David Simonelli, a company vice president. "There is no logical reason for the explosion of suits."