Canas v. Centerpoint Energy Resources Corp.

418 S.W.3d 312, 2013 WL 6230310, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 14546
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 27, 2013
DocketNo. 14-11-01055-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 418 S.W.3d 312 (Canas v. Centerpoint Energy Resources Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Canas v. Centerpoint Energy Resources Corp., 418 S.W.3d 312, 2013 WL 6230310, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 14546 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

OPINION

KEM THOMPSON FROST, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment in a wrongful-death action in which the decedent’s children asserted claims against a natural gas provider based upon negligence, negligence per se, strict liability, gross negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and intentional misrepresentation. The trial court dismissed all claims. On appeal, the three-member panel of this court is fractured, resulting in three separate opinions, two of which are part majority (those authored by Chief Justice Frost and Justice Christopher), and all of which are part dissents. Though the panel members disagree about much of the analysis, at least two of the three panel members [316]*316agree with respect to the proper judgment for each claim.

As to the claims based upon negligence, negligence per se, and strict liability, this court affirms the trial court’s judgment. As to these claims, section IV.A. of this opinion is a plurality opinion, with Justice Christopher concurring in the judgment, and Justice Jamison concurring in part in the judgment and dissenting in part. As to the gross-negligence claim, this court reverses the trial court’s judgment and remands for further proceedings consistent with section C. of Justice Christopher’s opinion, which is a majority opinion of the court as to the gross-negligence claim. Section IV.B. of this opinion is a dissenting opinion as to the gross-negligence claim. As to the intentional-misrepresentation and negligent-misrepresentation claims, this court reverses the trial court’s judgment and remands for further proceedings consistent with section IV.C. of this opinion, which is a majority opinion of the court as to these two claims. As to the intentional-misrepresentation and negligent-misrepresentation claims, Justice Christopher concurs in the judgment as to the intentional-misrepresentation claim and dissents as to the negligent-misrepresentation claim.

In section IV.A. of this opinion, Chief Justice Frost concludes that the limitation of liability in the natural gas provider’s tariff is reasonable and enforceable under the applicable legal standard for the fíled-rate doctrine and that the trial court did not err to the extent it granted summary judgment based upon the tariffs limitation of liability regarding the claims based upon negligence, negligence per se, and strict liability. As to part of the gross-negligence claim, Chief Justice Frost concludes that the trial court’s summary judgment should be affirmed because the plaintiffs have not challenged one of the summary-judgment grounds on appeal, and Chief Justice Frost dissents to the extent that this court affirms the trial court’s judgment as to this part of the gross-negligence claim. But, Chief Justice Frost concludes that it is proper for this court to reverse and remand the remainder of this claim. In section IV.C. of this opinion, the court, addressing the plaintiffs’ intentional-misrepresentation and negligent-misrepresentation claims, determines that that trial court erred in granting summary judgment as to these claims, which the plaintiffs added after the defendant filed its summary-judgment motion.

I. Factual and ProceduRal Background

Appellant/plaintiff Felicita Del Carmen Canas, as next friend of Yenifer Estefani Canas Escobar, Javier Enrique Canas Es-cobar and Beatriz Abigail Del Carmen Ca-nas, Minors (hereinafter the “Canas Parties”) filed a wrongful death action against appellee/defendant CenterPoint Energy Resources Corporation (hereinafter “Cen-terPoint”). In their live petition the Canas Parties make the following allegations:

• On March 2, 2007, Guadalupe Del Carmen Canas (“Canas”) was in her residence, a garage apartment located behind a house in Houston. Mary Betancourt owned both the house and the garage apartment.
• CenterPoint owned and operated the natural gas entering Canas’s residence.
• Natural gas leaked from an underground corroded gas line located on the exterior of Betancourt’s house, migrated underground through the soil, and into Canas’s garage apartment, filling the apartment with dangerous levels of gas.
• As the gas migrated underground into Canas’s residence, it became odorless or insufficiently odorized. [317]*317The odorant placed in the gas by CenterPoint was adsorbed by the soil.
• Rust and corrosion were visible on the pipes located next to the meter on the outside of the main residence and CenterPoint did not report this corrosion to anyone.
• At no time did CenterPoint warn Canas or Betancourt of the potential for gas to migrate into their homes when a corrosion leak or any other type of leak occurs. CenterPoint also failed to warn Canas or Betanc-ourt that the gas, which migrates underground into structures, can become either deodorized or inadequately odorized, due to the odorant being adsorbed into the soil.
• As a result of the leak and the diminished odorant in the gas, the gas accumulated in the structure and was undetectable until so much gas filled the structure that it reached the lower explosive limit and ignited.
• CenterPoint has known for decades that corrosion in gas lines results in underground gas leaks which can and do cause gas to travel into someone’s home or other structure in either an odorless or ineffectively odorized state due to the odorant being adsorbed in the soil. In addition, for at least a decade, Center-Point’s odorant suppliers have told CenterPoint to warn its customers about the dangers of odorant fade, but CenterPoint has failed to do so. CenterPoint has continued to fail to warn its customers, both before and after this incident. CenterPoint is also aware of many other gas explosions which have occurred in the same manner as the explosion in this case.
• An accumulation of gas inside Ca-nas’s residence caused an explosion which severely burned and injured Canas. The severe burns and injuries to Canas ultimately led to her death on March 20, 2007.

In their wrongful-death action, the Canas Parties assert claims for negligence, gross negligence, negligence per se, strict liability, intentional misrepresentation, and negligent misrepresentation.

CenterPoint moved for summary judgment on the following grounds:

(1) Under the filed-rate doctrine, all of the Canas Parties’ claims for strict liability and negligence are barred by the gas tariff in effect on the date of the incident made the basis of this suit.
(2) There is no evidence of Center-Point’s actual knowledge of a dangerous condition on Betancourt’s property that caused the fire in question and therefore the Canas Parties have not established that CenterPoint owed any duty to Canas regarding such dangerous conditions.
(3) Even absent any tariff, CenterPoint has no negligence liability to the Ca-nas Parties because CenterPoint has no duty to inspect a customer’s wiring, appliances, or the like before supplying gas to the customer and because CenterPoint is not liable for dangerous conditions on Betanc-ourt’s property due to the lack of any evidence that it had actual knowledge of any dangerous condition on Betancourt’s property. Because CenterPoint has no negligence liability to the Canas Parties, it cannot be liable for gross negligence or negligence per se.

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Bluebook (online)
418 S.W.3d 312, 2013 WL 6230310, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 14546, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/canas-v-centerpoint-energy-resources-corp-texapp-2013.