Fifth Circuit Hears Mining Companies’ Bid to Undo Pecan Farm’s Jury Win

A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit seemed hesitant during oral arguments Wednesday to overturn a jury’s verdict awarding a pecan farm more than $650,000 in a flood damage suit brought against the operators of a sand and gravel mine.

Just east of Austin, Martin Marietta Materials and TXI Operations operate a sand and gravel mine on the banks of the Colorado River. Their neighbor across the river, on the northern bank, is Good River Farms, a 377-acre pecan farm containing about 8,000 trees that has been owned and operated by the Wimberly family since 1959. This lawsuit was spawned from a major rain event — described as a 120-year flood — that hit the area on Oct. 30, 2015.