“This fight is not over and we will not stop working for our clients, even if it means fighting this dispute all the way at the Supreme Court.”
– Mark Fassold, Watts Guerra Attorney and representative for CBX.
In 2011 CBX leased oil production lands and hired Espada to drill a well on the site. After the well was installed as well as a fracking system, Espada attempted to pull out a well casing but failed causing the well to be plugged and abandoned.
Our client, CBX, filed a suit against Espada in Texas state court. The insurance company, Chubb Ltd., agreed to defend Espada under liability policies but later withdrew their defense two months prior to the trial resulting in the judge rendering a $105.7 million judgment against Espada in 2016.
CBX sought to hold Chubb liable for the judgment in 2017. CBX claims that Chubb exhibited unfair conduct and breached its coverage obligations to Espada but a U.S. District Judge issued an order in October of 2017 that Chubb had no duty to defend Espada. In June 2018 a second order was issued by the Judge that forbade CBX from collecting the judgment.
This dispute has been appealed at the Fifth Circuit and now is being petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court by our attorneys Mark Fassold and Travis Headley to hear the appeal. The Fifth Circuit dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction based on the so-called “finality trap” which occurs when a final judgment is obtained after the voluntary dismissal of non-adjudicated without prejudice. The circuit courts of appeal are split on whether such judgments are final for purposes of 28 U.S.C. § 1291. Mark Fassold told Law360 that, “This petition to the U.S. Supreme Court presents an opportunity for the justices to fix this egregious mess.”
To read more about this lawsuit, visit Law360.com
