A US family is asking the Texas Supreme Court to review an environmental nuisance lawsuit against Marathon Oil.
The lawsuit relates to the Eagle Ford shale has landed in the Supreme Court of Texas where a Karnes County family is asking justices to review their case.
Landowners Michael and Myra Cerny allege that “strong odors and noxious chemicals” from oil wells surrounding their property made both them and their son sick while the noise reduced the quality of life and the nearby oil field activity damaged the foundation of their home.
Their original lawsuit in 2013 named Marathon Oil and Plains Exploration & Production as the culprits.
The case was dismissed in the US district court in August 2014 with the family appealing the decision.
A higher court last year upheld the previous ruling stating the family failed to meet legal standards for nuisance and negligence claims.
The Cerny family asked the court of appeals to rehear the case but when that request was denied in November 2015, they turned to the Supreme Court of Texas in January.
A timetable has not been set, but justices will review both sides of the petition and then decide whether or not to accept the case.
San Diego, Texas-based attorney David Towler, who is one of the two attorneys representing the Cerny family in the Texas Supreme Court, told the San Antonio Business Journal that there are important legal issues in the case that justices need to consider.
With multiple oil wells surrounding the family’s property, the family doesn’t have to prove which specific one caused the damages and that the standard for “nuisance” deserves to be looked at, Towler said.
“Making living conditions unbearable does not mean getting cancer from some chemical,” Towler told the newspaper. “You don’t need an expert to testify that the smell was so bad that they couldn’t live in their own house.”
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