Sometimes bringing in business requires a hard hat.
Annie Basu of The Basu Law Firm in Houston says clients could not reach her door when construction work for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County “shut down our branch completely” during a period in 2011 and 2012.
Basu’s firm sued, as did Bose Investments, the company that owns her branch’s building near North Caesar Chavez Road and Harrisburg Boulevard. Basu represents both plaintiffs.
The Jan. 29 petition in Basu Law Firm, et al. v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Harris County describes barricades, flying debris, dirt and noise pollution as obstructions to their business operations. The plaintiffs bring claims against MTA of negligence, inverse condemnation and nuisance seek damages for loss of revenues and attorney fees.
Basu says the other two branches of her then three-lawyer (now it’s down to two) firm continued to operate during this period, but the one at the location near the construction stopped.
A message for Alva Trevino, general counsel for the MTA, was returned by Jerome Gray, a spokesman for the MTA. In email, he writes: “I looked into this and so far METRO has not been served with a lawsuit. Our general counsel tells me she will want to see what we are served with to determine what if any response we will be able to provide. I asked her to alert me as soon as we get served. I can then get back to you.”
Basu says, prior to filing the petition in 11th District Court in Houston, the plaintiffs had exhausted their administrative remedies.
— Miriam Rozen
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