Bd. of Comm'rs of the Se. La. Flood Prot. Auth.-E. v. Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co., Civil Action Case No. 13–5410.

• Decision Date: 27 June 2014
• Docket Number: Civil Action Case No. 13–5410.
• Citation: 29 F.Supp.3d 808
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana
• Parties: BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA FLOOD PROTECTION AUTHORITY–EAST v. TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY, LLC, et al.

29 F.Supp.3d 808

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA FLOOD PROTECTION AUTHORITY–EAST

v.TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY, LLC, et al.

Civil Action Case No. 13–5410.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

Signed June 27, 2014.

Gladstone N. Jones, III, Eberhard D. Garrison, Emma E. Daschbach, Kevin Earl Huddell, Jones, Swanson, Huddell & Garrison, LLC, Benjamin D. Reichard, Brent Bennett Barriere, James Richard Swanson, Fishman Haygood, New Orleans, LA, Alonzo P. Wilson, Ashley E. Philen, J. Rock Palermo, III, J. Michael Veron, Turner Duvall Brumby, Veron, Bice, Palermo & Wilson, Lake Charles, LA, for Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East.

Ewell E. Eagan, Jr., James D. Rhorer, Terrence Kent Knister, Jane Jackson, Terrence Kent Knister, Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, Thomas G. O'Brien, Francis V. Liantonio, Jr., Gregory Fortier Rouchell, Jane C. Raiford, Martin Alan Stern, Glen Marion Pilie, Jeffrey E. Richardson, Adams & Reese, LLP, Joe B. Norman, Kathryn Zainey Gonski, Kenneth Todd Wallace, Jonathan A. Hunter, Elizabeth S. Wheeler, Kelly Brechtel Becker, Jamie D. Rhymes, Robert B. McNeal, Liskow & Lewis, Loulan Joseph Pitre, Jr., Aimee Williams Hebert, Kelly Hart & Pitre, Brett P. Fenasci, Richard Stuart Pabst, Michael Raudon Phillips, Kean Miller LLP, Ernest Aloysius Burguieres, III, Ernest A. Burguieres III, Attorney at Law, Kyle D. Schonekas, Frances M. Montegut, William P. Gibbens, Schonekas, Evans, McGoey & McEachin, LLC, Gerald F. Slattery, Jr., Emile Joseph Dreuil, Slattery, Marino & Roberts, Deborah Deroche Kuchler, Janika D. Polk, Leigh Ann Tschirn Schell, Kuchler Polk Schell Weiner & Richeson, LLC, Etienne Cassard Lapeyre, Felix Henri Lapeyre, Jr., Lapeyre & Lapeyre, LLP, Andrew A. Braun, Caitlin J. Hill, Gieger, Laborde & Laperouse, LLC, Roy Clifton Cheatwood, Nancy Scott Degan, Tyler Weidlich, Matthew A. Woolf, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz, Carl David Rosenblum, Alida C. Hainkel, Lauren Courtney Mastio, Glenn Gill Goodier, Robert Taylor Lemon II, Wayne G. Zeringue, Jr., Jones Walker, George Moore Gilly, Phelps Dunbar, LLP, M. Taylor Darden, Matthew James Fantaci, Robert Spier Stassi, Stephen P. Scullin, Carver, Darden, Koretzky, Tessier, Finn, Blossman & Areaux, David Louis Carrigee, Beverly Klundt Baudouin, Jedd Spencer Malish, Baldwin, Haspel, Burke & Mayer, LLC, Christoffer C. Friend, Gerald James Huffman, Jr., Meghan Elizabeth Smith, Susan Ruth Laporte, Curry & Friend, APLC, Omer Frederick Kuebel, III, Monique M. Lafontaine, Locke Lord, New Orleans, LA, Alexander G. Junge, J. Curtis Moffatt, Lawrence G. Acker, Michael M. Diamond, Patrick O. Daugherty, Van Ness Feldman, Heather Zachary, Paul R.Q. Wolfson, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, LLP, Ashley C. Parrish, King & Spalding, LLP, Washington, DC, Thomas M. McNamara, Johnson, Gray, McNamara, LLC, Douglas Conrad Longman, Jr., Jones Walker, George Arceneaux, III, Brittan J. Bush, George H. Robinson, Jr., Brian W. Capell, Liskow & Lewis, Julie E. Deshotels, Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, Robert Michael Kallam, Jennifer A. Wells, Preis & Roy, PLC, Gary Paul Kraus, Onebane Law Firm, Stephen D. Baker, Stephen D. Baker, Attorney at Law, Paul J. Hebert, Ottinger Hebert, LLC, Daniel Clarence Hughes, Daniel C. Hughes, APLC, Brandon Wade Letulier, Cliff Lacour, Francis Xavier Neuner, Jr., Ben Louis Mayeaux, Kevin Paul Merchant, Neunerpate, Lafayette, LA, Felicia H. Ellsworth, Robert C. Kirsch, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr, LLP, Boston, MA, Matthew T. Heartney, Nancy G. Milburn, Arnold & Porter, LLP, New York, NY, Chad M. Smith, Clark H. Rucker, Marshall M. Searcy, Jr., Jason C. Nash, Kelly, Hart & Hallman, LLP, Fort Worth, TX, Leonard L. Kilgore, III, Erin Percy Tadie, Esteban Herrera, Jr., Mark Andrew Marionneaux, Richard D. McConnell, Jr., Victor Jacob Suane, Jr., Charles Simon McCowan, III, Linda Sarradet Akchin, Louis Victor Gregoire, Jr., Victor Gregoire, Jr., Kean Miller, John Michael Parker, Edward D. Hughes, Erin B. Sayes, Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips LLP, Baton Rouge, LA, Morgan J. Wells, Jr., Evan J. Godofsky, Larzelere, Picou, Wells, Simpson, Lonero, LLC, Emily C. Canizaro, Blue Williams, LLP, Metairie, LA, Michael P. Cash, Liskow & Lewis, Gabe T. Vick, Julia M. Palmer, Gray, Reed, & McGraw P.C., James J. Ormiston, Michael A. Ackal, III, Looper, Reed, & McGraw P.C., Amy L. Snell, George T. Shipley, Shipley Snell Montgomery, LLP, Jeremiah J. Anderson, Robert E. Meadows, King & Spalding, LLP, Joseph E. Leblanc, Jr., Leblanc Bland PLLC, Jason Christopher McLaurin, John G. Bissell, Strong, Pipkin, Bissell & Ledyard, LLP, Michael A. Chernekoff, Jones Walker, Houston, TX, John A. Scialdone, John Steven Garner, Michael J. Thompson, Jr., Todd G. Crawford, Fowler Rodriguez, Gulfport, MS, James T. Guglielmo, Jennifer Lynn Hart, Guglielmo, Lopez, Tuttle, Hunter & Jarrell, Opelousas, LA, Paul Edward Bullington, Sara Lewis, Wall, Bullington & Cook, LLC, Harahan, LA, Scott Allen Soule, Blue Williams, LLP, Mandeville, LA, for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, LLC, et al.

ORDER AND REASONS

NANNETTE JOLIVETTE BROWN, District Judge.

In this litigation, Plaintiff Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority—East (“Plaintiff”) seeks damages and injunctive relief against ninety-two oil and gas companies whose actions have allegedly caused erosion of coastal lands, leaving south Louisiana increasingly exposed to tropical storms and hurricanes. Plaintiff originally filed suit in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, but Defendants removed the matter to this federal Court. Now pending before the Court is Plaintiff's “Motion to Remand.”¹ Having considered the motion, the memoranda in support, the memoranda in opposition, the statements at oral argument, Plaintiff's petition, the notice of removal, and the applicable law, the Court will deny the motion.

Because the Court's specific basis for jurisdiction has the potential to reverberate throughout a number of other considerations in this litigation—particularly, Plaintiff's entitlement, if any, to a jury trial, and choice of law questions—the Court has examined all five bases of jurisdiction raised in Defendants' Notice of Removal.

I. Background

A. Factual Background

Plaintiff in this matter is the Board of Commissioners of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority—East, individually and as the board governing the Orleans Levee District, the Lake Borgne Basin Levee District, and the East Jefferson Levee District.² The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (the “Authority”) was created by statute in 2006 to further “regional coordination of flood protection.”³ According to Plaintiff, the Authority's “mission is to ensure the physical and operational integrity of the regional flood risk management system, and to work with local, regional, state and federal partners to plan, design and construct projects that will reduce the probability and risk of flooding of the residents within the Authority's jurisdiction.”⁴

Defendants are ninety-two oil and gas companies operating in what Plaintiff refers to as the “Buffer Zone.”⁵ The Buffer Zone “extends from East of the Mississippi River through the Breton Sound Basin, the Biloxi Marsh, and the coastal wetlands of eastern New Orleans and up to Lake St. Catherine.”⁶

Plaintiff alleges that Defendants' oil and gas operations have led to coastal erosion in the Buffer Zone, making south Louisiana more vulnerable to severe weather and flooding. According to Plaintiff, “[c]oastal lands have for centuries provided a crucial buffer zone between south Louisiana's communities and the violent wave action and storm surge that tropical storms and hurricanes transmit from the Gulf of Mexico.”⁷ However, “[h]undreds of thousands of acres of coastal lands that once protected south Louisiana are now gone as a result of oil and gas activities.”⁸ Specifically, Plaintiff asserts that Defendants have “dredged a network of canals to access oil and gas wells and to transport the many products and by-products of oil and gas production.”⁹ This canal network, in conjunction with “the altered hydrology associated with oil and gas activities,” has caused vegetation die-off, sedimentation inhibition, erosion, and submergence—all leading to coastal land loss.¹⁰ In addition to the initial dredging, Plaintiff maintains that Defendants “exacerbate direct land loss by failing to maintain the canal network and banks of the canals that Defendants have dredged, used, or otherwise overseen.”¹¹ This failure has “caused both the erosion of the canal banks and expansion beyond their originally permitted widths and depths of the canals comprising that network.”¹² Looking beyond the alleged effects of the canal network, Plaintiffs identify ten other oil and gas activities that allegedly “drastically inhibit the natural hydrological patterns and processes of the coastal lands”—road dumps, ring levees, drilling activities, fluid withdrawal, seismic surveys, marsh buggies, spoil disposal/dispersal, watercraft navigation, impoundments, and propwashing/ maintenance dredging.¹³

B. Procedural Background

On July 24, 2013, Plaintiff filed suit in Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana.¹⁴ In its petition, Plaintiff asserts six causes of action: (1) negligence,¹⁵ (2) strict liability,¹⁶ (3) natural servitude of drain,¹⁷ (4) public nuisance,¹⁸ (5) private nuisance,¹⁹ and (6) breach of contract—third party beneficiary.²⁰ Plaintiff requests both damages and injunctive relief

... in the form of abatement and restoration of the coastal land loss at issue, including, but not limited to, the backfilling and revegetating of each and every canal Defendants dredged, used, and/or for which they bear responsibility, as well as all manner of abatement and restoration activities determined to be appropriate, including, but not limited to, wetlands

...