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Texas Brine Sued By Its Insurer Over Sinkhole Site

One of the insurers of Texas Brine Company has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of ignoring warnings about the potential for disaster if it continued mining an Assumption Parish salt dome cavern. The suit arises from the massive sinkhole created after the cavern collapsed in 2012 and a dispute over possible insurance payouts.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- One of the insurers of Texas Brine Company has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of ignoring warnings about the potential for disaster if it continued mining an Assumption Parish salt dome cavern.

The suit arises from the massive sinkhole created after the cavern collapsed in 2012 and a dispute over possible insurance payouts.

Liberty Insurance Underwriters Inc. says in the federal lawsuit that Texas Brine's staff and others warned for years about the potential problems. The lawsuit cites internal company reports, memos and email about the risks.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1gqgZ8m) that, in a statement Tuesday, Texas Brine denied "many of the specific allegations made in the suit," including Liberty's claims there is no coverage under its policy. The company also says Liberty inappropriately used information provided in confidence.

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