Page 6
THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1981
5
Lawsuit filed to delay testing of private rocked
United Press International
HOUSTON — Matagorda Peninsula
landowners concerned about their liability in
the event of a misfiring private rocket have filed
a lawsuit to delay the testing, and an official
involved said the action will cause the launch
site to be moved.
An attorney for the landowners late Monday
said nine plaintiffs to the suit filed in Matagorda
County District Court last week would meet in
Bay City with officials of Space Services Inc. of
Houston and GCH, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif, to
discuss the problem. No date has been set for
that meeting.
Whatever the result of the talks, the Percher-
on Project — which is openly cheered by several
of the lawsuits plaintiffs — has suffered its first
adversity.
SSI President David Hannah Jr. of Houston
said a test launch of the 55-foot, liquid-fuel rocket
would be put back to early August.
Earlier Monday he said the move from Mata
gorda Peninsula down the coast to Matagorda
Island was imminent and that the two companies
would not contest the lawsuit.
“We didn’t want to make an issue out of it if we
could find an alternate site. As it is, it is a two-
week delay. It would have taken longer to go to
court,” he said.
A state district court hearing was scheduled for
July 7, but landowners’ lawyer G.P. Hardy III of
Houston said the hearing would not be needed
because something would be resolved before
that date. GCH officials have requested a meet
ing with the landowners, he said.
“They (SSI and GCH) have about $25 million
third-party insurance,” Hardy said. “That may or
may not be enough. How do you determine how
much is enough? How long is a piece of string?”
The companies hope to be the first private
interests to carry satellites into orbit. Except for
one German company, only governments have
been in the rocket business.
The chances of a misfire causing an accident
are extremely slim, the companies say. Several
stationary firings of the boosters — with the rock
ets in place — will be made prior to launch.
UPI learned the Matagorda Island launch pad
will be built on the land of Dallas oilman Toddie
Lee Wynne Sr., but Wynne said by phone he had
not given final approval.
“If I would talk about working out a proposal
with them, I would work out an agreement (on
the liability),” Wynne said.
He said he backed the project TOO percent'
and felt the Bay City residents who filed suit had
“huilt up straw houses to knock down.
Part-owner Bert L. Huebner, a Bay City
lawyer who is John’s second cousin, said the
other owners — three of the nine plaintiffs are
named Huebner — did not know' of the rocket
plan.
“I first heard about it on the news,” Bert
Huebner said Monday. "I first thought it was
funny. Then I thought it was a great idea. I’m
pulling for them.”
Both then the “12 or so partowners began
calling each other. Some were mad; some like the
attorney wanted to make sure they would not Ik?
liable in case of a misfire and accident.
“It’s an extremely dangerous undertaking. No
one approached us in any manner showing insur-
C
ance or finuiujul responsibility, Huebner!
And I know from practical law isthatifso
thing goes wr«tg, or if the rocket hitstheS*
Texas Project er an oil rig, you can rest assure
the land ownkrs are going to he named
lawsuit,” he sid.
The South Texas Project is a nuclearre»Ho\
being built nlxiut (30 miles northeast ofthek. hal
Sif© .in<
“So I flew ntv plane onto the peninsulauen
talked to the |i^ople working at the launch mss
They were all young guys in their 20s i 1
eouldn t help me he said. ir m
Hannah said the lawsuit hit him “outot'nde
blue." ■ (.j-ty
"Right now we re staking out the landonVion
gorda Island for the concrete slab and weTIk l
it poured this week. j avt
Texas
Briefs
United Press International
DALLAS — Senate Armed Ser
vices Committee Chairman John
Tower has said a proposed
Washington memorial to Vietnam
veterans should not only honor
the war dead and but also remind
politicians of who is to blame for
losing the war.
Tower made the comments
Monday in a speech at a luncheon
for the Vietnam Veterans Memo
rial Fund, which is seeking to raise
$7 million to finance the monu
ment.
Tower said the proposed
memorial should serve as a remin
der that the 2.7 million veterans of
the war served well, and that
blame for losing the war rests with
“the actions of any number of my
colleagues (in the Senate).”
“As a U. S. Senator, I will never
again vote to commit American
boys to military action that we are
not dedicated to bring to the ear
liest possible conlusion,” Tower
said.
The monument -— a 10-foot
peaked wall of black granite that
would bear the name of each of the
57,692 servicemen killed in the
11-year war — is scheduled for
dedication on Veterans Day,
1982.
Fund founder Jan Scruggs said
the organization has collected $1.8
million from private contribu
tions, including $1 million from
the American Legion. He said
there were 3,381 Texans among
the war dead.
Errors blamed
United Press International
DALLAS — Computer errors
that lead to overpayments and du
plicate payments by Blue Cross
and Blue Shield of Texas are partly
responsible for substantial rate in
creases for some employee
groups, a state insurance official
says.
William P. Daves, chairman of
the State Board of Insurance, said
Monday the overpayments and
duplicate payments inflated the
firm’s cost of doing business and
contributed to Blue Cross’ $45
million loss last year.
Insurance companies generally
base their rates on how much they
paid out in claims the previous
year. The Insurance Board does
not regulate rates for group
medical policies. State insurance
examiners have been conducting a
special examination of the com
pany’s books for two months.
4 Oil firms cited
United Press International
DALLAS — The Department
of Energy has served notices of
possible violations against four
Houston oil firms it said exceeded
maximum legal prices by a total of
$7.2 million in the resale of crude
oil during 1980.
The notices, announced Mon
day by DOE, are the first steps in
department administrative sanc
tions. The DOE alleges the firms
exceeded ceiling prices on crude
oil sold before price controls were
removed in January.
Included in separate notices of
probable violations were Thomas
Petroleum Products, Kelly Trad
ing Corp., TEG Petroleum Corp.
and Alma Energy Inc., all crude
oil reselling firms that generally
act as middlemen with producers,
refiners and other resellers.
Production down
United Press International
AUSTIN — The Railroad Com
mission reports that Texas crude
oil production declined during
April by more than 3 million bar
rels from the same month in 1980.
Production during April of this
year totaled 74,062,276 barrels,
compared to April 1980 produc
tion of77,376,009 barrels and pro
duction in March of this year of
77,400,736 barrels, the commis
sion said Monday.
April production averaged
2,468,742 barrels of crude daily,
down from 2,579,200 barrels a day
from the same month last year.
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