NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) -
A legal battle between a
Nacogdoches County property owner and TransCanada continued Wednesday. plaintiff
Mike Bishop and TransCanada attorney James Freeman were poised and ready to
present their arguments for and against a permanent injunction. If granted it,
could block pipeline construction on Bishop's land near Douglass.
However, before arguments began,
they were both called into County Court-at-Law Judge Jack Sinz's chambers.
After
a short consultation, Sinz announced he's uncertain if a question of easement
falls under his jurisdiction, and that it may be a question for district
court. He asked lawyers on both sides to
research the matter. If they're in agreement, the case will be moved to the
higher court. If not, discussion will resume.
"It's not an eminent domain
proceeding," David Dodson, a spokesman for TransCanada, said. "It's a breach of
contract is what's left."
Freeman said that he is going
to try to file something by the first week in January.
"The judge is very cautious," Bishop
said. "Like he said, if he rules in my favor, then TransCanada's attorney is
going to go to district court and file an appeal based on some nit-picky
loophole in the law, and he wants to cover all those loopholes with a brief
from each side."
Bishop's petition calls for the
negation of TransCanada's existing right-of-way contract. Bishop says the
company lied, and that tar sands oil is not crude. TransCanada insists it is.
"I know the difference between
oil and bitumen," Arnold Nass, an opponent of the pipeline, said. They are not
the same."
The order was initiated by the
judge, but some pipeline opponents call it a delay tactic.
"I think it's in TransCanada's
interest to string this out as long as possible," the Rev. Kyle Childress,
another pipeline opponent, said.
Bishop is disappointed, but has
no intentions of giving up the fight.
"We say here in East Texas,
‘you turn on the lights, the roaches run,'" Bishop said. "Nobody wants to hear
the truth."
The landowner is currently
representing himself, but is now seeking the assistance of an attorney.
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