Sanderson Farms, five East Texas poultry and cattle farms and the Consolidated Water Supply Corporation have asked an Anderson County judge to reject legal efforts by Dallas businessman Kyle Bass to intervene in their water rights litigation.
Lawyers for the farms, known in the litigation as “growers,” argue in a six-page document filed Tuesday that legal efforts by Bass to stop their court-approved settlement agreement with the Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District is too little, too late and completely against Texas law.
Two Bass-owned real estate entities — Pine Bliss, a 4,300-acre property that serves as the Bass family ranch in Henderson County, and Redtown Ranch Holdings, a 7,200-acre ranch in Anderson County — filed a motion to intervene in the litigation on Oct. 31 claiming that the water district’s agreement violates Bass’ constitutional rights to access and use the water on his own property. The two entities also filed their own lawsuit against the water district the same day seeking to force the agency to approve its request to drill for water on the properties.
Lawyers for Bass complained that their client’s rights were violated when Sanderson Farms and the water district reached an agreement prohibiting the drilling for water that Bass seeks to do. The settlement agreement was part of the final judgment entered by the Anderson County judge on Oct. 24.
Lawyers for Bass filed their motion to intervene on Oct. 31.
The motion filed Tuesday by Sanderson Farms and the others asks the court to strike the Bass motion for intervention from the record because “it is untimely and [because] Pine Bliss and Redtown are not parties before this court.”
“For 67 years, the Texas Supreme Court has consistently held that a post-judgment petition in intervention is untimely as a matter of law and that Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 60, which governs interventions, is inapplicable,” lawyers for the growers and Sanderson Farms argue in their motion. “Moreover, Texas case law is clear that the filing of a pos-judgment petition in intervention has no effect on the judgment previously rendered. The courts have further recognized that post-judgment intervenors do not become parties to the suit by filing their intervention.”
The lawyers representing the growers include Clayton Bailey and Jared Wilkinson of Bailey Brauer. Lawyers for Sanderson Farms include David Deaconson and Will Gray of Pakis, Giotes, Burleson & Deaconson, and Stacey Reese of Stacey Reese Law. Spencer Nealy and Patrick Lindner of Davidson Troilo Ream & Garza are representing the Consolidated Water Supply Corporation.
The lawyers for Bass include Jeff Tillotson, Mollie Mallory, Sara Babineaux and Enrique Ramirez of Tillotson Johnson & Patton in Dallas.
The case is Sanderson Farms v. Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District, No. 25-5642-369.