Closing Texas loophole clears way to vital operation
By STATE REP. CORBIN VAN ARSDALE

Texas ports are critical to the strength of our state's massive and flourishing economy. The Port of Houston is the largest in the country and the third largest in the world. More than 300 tons of cargo passes through it and hundreds of other Texas ports each year, producing $178 billion in business sales and a million jobs for Texans. Texas ports handle 20% of the national total of marine traffic and our maritime industry generates more than $649 million in state and local tax revenues.

Despite this maritime prominence, Texas has no natural, deep-water ports. Our harbors and waterways must be dredged constantly to keep the ship channels open. That's why an explosion of lawsuits against dredging companies in our state courts over the past few years is a threat to the entire maritime industry.

Dredging in Texas has become so expensive that improvement projects along the Texas Gulf Coast are seriously at risk. Projects at Port Mansfield and the Port of Brownsville have already been canceled.

An unusual and dangerous loophole in Texas law allows maritime workers to file a state lawsuit in the county where they live. Other personal injury lawsuits in our state must be filed in the county where the injury took place or in the county where the defendant does business.

This exception, which is not allowed in any other state or in federal lawsuits, has resulted in a dramatic increase in maritime lawsuits in four South Texas counties Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron, and Zapata.

Although only a small percentage of maritime workers live in these counties, in a single year, 98 of the 170 personal injury lawsuits filed against dredgers in the entire nation were filed in there ” nearly sixty percent of the country's total. These lawsuits are being filed almost exclusively by two law firms that are aggressively using the loophole to file lawsuits in what they clearly believe are friendly courts.

I have introduced legislation that will close this loophole and bring these lawsuits in line with all others in our state. My goal is to end rampant venue shopping.

An attorney from one of the firms that has filed the majority of the Texas maritime cases told an audience of dredging professionals last year that he files cases in the Rio Grande Valley, rather than in traditional venues, because he can get a financial judgment that is 60 to 70 percent higher than he would get if he filed the same case in Houston or Galveston.

Reprehensibly, the attorney also suggested that in the Valley counties, he does not need to prove that the dredging company is at fault.

The lawsuits are damaging the Texas dredging industry and our job base in Texas. The increased cost of doing business in Texas must be factored into every bid submitted on dredging contracts.

If we don't address this problem, dredging in Texas will either come to a halt because of prohibitive liability costs or those costs will be shifted to the taxpayer, because dredging of ports is paid by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

Our ports have made Texas a global market hub, and they keep us on the cutting edge of international competitiveness. The legislation I propose, HB 1602, will make sure this critical industry will not fall victim to lawsuit abuse.

Van Arsdale, R-Houston, is a former maritime lawyer.