the Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Texas v. Zachry Construction Corporation

Opinion

ACCEPTED 14-10-00708-CV FOURTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS HOUSTON, TEXAS 2/2/2015 12:44:38 PM CHRISTOPHER PRINE CLERK

No. 14-10-00708-CV ________________________________________ FILED IN IN THE COURT OF APPEALS 14th COURT OF APPEALS HOUSTON, TEXAS FOR THE FOURTEENTH DISTRICT 2/2/2015 12:44:38 PM OF TEXAS AT HOUSTON CHRISTOPHER A. PRINE ________________________________________ Clerk

Port of Houston Authority of Harris County, Texas, Appellant and Cross-Appellee, v. Zachry Construction Corporation, Appellee and Cross-Appellant. ________________________________________

On appeal from the 151st District Court of Harris County, Texas Trial Court Cause No. 2006-72970 ________________________________________

THE PORT AND ZACHRY’S AGREED MOTION TO MODIFY THE BRIEFING SCHEDULE

TO THE FOURTEENTH COURT OF APPEALS: The Port of Houston Authority (the “Port”) and Zachry Construction

Corporation (“Zachry”) jointly move the Court to modify the briefing schedule set

by the Court’s order of January 27, 2015 and jointly ask the Court to adopt the

agreed briefing schedule set out herein. The Port and Zachry would respectfully

show the Court as follows:

1. On October 20, 2011, this appeal was argued before a panel of Justices

Boyce, Christopher, and McCally.

1 2. The case then went to the Supreme Court, where on August 29, 2014, the

Supreme Court issued its decision, and the Court denied the Port’s motion for

rehearing on December 19, 2014.

3. On January 27, 2015, the Court ordered a briefing schedule on remand.

The Port and Zachry, by this motion, ask the Court to adopt the agreed briefing

schedule set out herein instead of the briefing schedule in the Court’s order of

January 27, 2015. As good cause for this change, the Port and Zachry would show

the Court as follows:

a. The schedule set out in the Court’s order required Zachry to file

its supplemental brief of appellee on March 30, 2015, when

Zachry’s appellate counsel has a long-planned spring break trip

with her family from March 14-20, 2015.

b. Appellate counsel for the Port is also counsel for the Texas

Railroad Commission concerning the attempts to overturn the

City of Denton’s anti-fracing statute, and the agreed scheduling

order in that case calls for dispositive motions to be filed on

March 2, 2015. Therefore, the March 13 date for the Port’s

supplemental brief of appellant is problematic for the Port’s

counsel.

2 c. If the Court will adopt the briefing schedule, which is agreed to

by Zachry and the Port, the parties represent to the Court that

they will ask for no further extensions of time on briefing.

4. Zachry and the Port have agreed to request that the Court adopt the

following agreed briefing schedule.

a. Port’s supplemental brief of appellant (15,000 words) to be

filed April 13, 2015;

b. Zachry’s supplemental brief of appellee (15,000 words) to be

filed June 12, 2015; and

c. Port’s supplemental reply brief (7,500 words) to be filed July

13, 2015. Oral argument will be scheduled after all briefing is

received.

PRAYER

For the foregoing reasons, the Port and Zachry respectfully ask the Court to

grant this motion, adopt the agreed briefing schedule set out herein, and grant the

parties all other relief to which they are entitled.

3 Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Marie R. Yeates David H. Brown Marie R. Yeates State Bar No. 03109200 State Bar No. 22150700 BROWN & KORNEGAY LLP Catherine B. Smith 2777 Allen Parkway, Suite 977 State Bar No. 03319970 Houston, Texas 77019 Michael A. Heidler Phone: 713.528.3703 State Bar No. 24059921 Fax: 713.528.3701 VINSON & ELKINS L.L.P. Email: dbrown@bkllp.com 1001 Fannin St. Houston, Texas 77002 Karen L.T. White Phone: 713.758.4576 State Bar No. 20274500 Fax: 713.615.5544 KAREN L.T. WHITE, P.C. Email: myeates@velaw.com 1415 S. Voss, Suite 110-539 Houston, Texas 77057 David E. Keltner Phone: 832.646.4667 State Bar No. 11249500 Email: karen@kltwpc.com 201 Main Street, Suite 2500 Fort Worth, Texas 76102 Lawrence J. Fossi Phone: 817.878.3560 State Bar No. 07280650 Fax: 817.878.9760 FOSSI & JEWELL LLP Email: david.keltner@kellyhart.com 4203 Yoakum Blvd., Suite 100 Houston, Texas 77006 Bill Sims Phone: 713.529.4000 State Bar No. 18429500 Fax: 713.529.4094 VINSON & ELKINS L.L.P. Email: lfossi@fossijewell.com 2001 Ross Avenue, Suite 3700 Dallas, Texas 75201-2975 Phone: 214.220.7703 Fax: 214.999.7703 Email: bsims@velaw.com

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT THE PORT OF HOUSTON AUTHORITY OF HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS

4 /s/ Robin C. Gibbs

REYNOLDS, FRIZZELL, BLACK, GIBBS & BRUNS, L.L.P. DOYLE, ALLEN & OLDHAM, LLP Robin C. Gibbs Brandon T. Allen State Bar No. 0785300 State Bar No. 24009353 rgibbs@gibbsbruns.com ballen@reynoldsfrizzell.com Jennifer Horan Greer 1100 Louisiana, Suite 3500 State Bar No. 00785611 Houston, Texas 77002 jgreer@gibbsbruns.com Phone: (713) 485-7200 Sydney G. Ballesteros Fax: (713) 485-7520 State Bar No. 24036180 sballesteros@gibbsbruns.com ALEXANDER DUBOSE & Michael R. Absmeier TOWNSEND LLP State Bar No. 24050195 Douglas W. Alexander mabsmeier@gibbsbruns.com State Bar No. 00992350 Amanda B. Nathan dalexander@adtappellate.com State Bar No. 00784662 515 Congress Avenue, Suite 2350 anathan@gibbsbruns.com Austin, Texas 78701-3562 1100 Louisiana, Suite 5300 Phone: (512) 482-9301 Houston, Texas 77002 Fax: (512) 482-9303 Phone: (713) 650-8805 Fax: (713) 750-0903

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE, ZACHRY CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION

5 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on this 2nd day of February 2015, a true and correct copy of the foregoing instrument was served by e-service on the following counsel for Zachry Construction Corporation.

Robin C. Gibbs Gibbs & Bruns, L.L.P. 1100 Louisiana, Suite 5300 Houston, Texas 77002

Brandon T. Allen Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham L.L.P. 1100 Louisiana, Suite 3500 Houston, Texas 77002

/s/ Marie R. Yeates Marie R. Yeates

6 CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE

Appellee Zachry Construction Corp. agrees to the relief requested by this

motion.

/s/ Marie R. Yeates Marie R. Yeates