AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – A provision in a Texas utility tariff keeps a gas company from having to pay up for a house explosion.
The Texas Supreme Court on Feb. 11 ruled for CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. and against the Ramirez family, which sued the utility for a February 2015 explosion caused by a botched repair job on a clothes dryer.
Fernando and Minerva Ramirez were houseguests at the daughter Graciela Castillo’s home in Laredo. Fernando accidentally opened a valve on an unused gas line behind a dryer he was fixing, allowing gas to fill the area.
An explosion damaged the home and seriously injured Fernando. He sued, claiming CenterPoint had an obligation to plug the gas line.
A jury apportioned 34% of fault to the company, leaving it on the hook for more than $2 million of a $6.9 million verdict.
The presiding judge and a court of appeals ruled against CenterPoint’s argument that a clause prevented it from liability. CenterPoint finally found a favorable audience in the Texas Supreme Court.
The tariff says a utility “shall not be liable for any damage or loss” when they are “caused by the escape of gas from Consumer’s housepiping or Consumer’s appliances.”
That is how the Ramirezes were injured but they argued the clause only applied to homeowners – not houseguests like themselves.
But Justice John Devine said the provision expressly applies to “all consumers”
“The houseguests are bound by the tariff’s terms because, as consumers, the tariff applies to them and, like any other law, neither assent nor actual knowledge is required to enforce its terms as written,” Devine wrote.