Local And National Environmental Groups Seek To Intervene In Denton Fracking Case

On Thursday, December 4, 2014, in Texas Oil and Gas Assoc. v. City of Denton, Cause No. 14-08933-431, 431st District Court, Denton County, Texas, the Denton Drilling Awareness Group and Earthworks filed a Joint Petition in Intervention seeking to "provide a vigorous defense of the legality and enforceability" of the December 2, 2014, ordinance (the "Ordinance") which banned hydraulic fracturing in Denton. The suit was originally filed on November 5, 2014, by the Texas Oil & Gas Association, a day after Denton voters passed the Ordinance by a 59-41 percent margin.

The Denton Drilling Awareness Group is a Texas nonprofit corporation that created the "Frack Free Denton" campaign and extensively supported the ban. Earthworks is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that worked with the Denton Drilling Awareness Group to support the Frack Free Denton campaign and advocated for passage of the fracking ban.

Rule 60 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure provides "Any party may intervene by filing a pleading, subject to being stricken out by the court for sufficient cause on the motion of a party." Tex. R. Civ. P. 60. Although a Texas trial court has broad discretion in determining whether an intervention should be stricken, it is an abuse of discretion to strike a plea in intervention if (1) the intervenor could have brought some or all of the same action in his own name, or if the action had been brought against the intervenor, he could have defeated the action in...