A landowner today won a temporary injunction intended to halt TransCanada Corp.'s construction of a segment of its controversial oil sands pipeline on private property in Texas, activists said.

TransCanada was evaluating the full effect of the order but said it would not delay its overall plan to begin operating the pipeline before the end of next year, and a spokesman said the company had not yet been served with papers this morning.

Landowner Mike Bishop persuaded a Nacogdoches County judge to temporarily halt construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline across his property, pending a trial later this month. Bishop accuses TransCanada of defrauding landowners by claiming the pipeline would carry crude oil although the diluted bitumen, or dilbit, that would be transported from Alberta's oil sands do not meet the state's legal definition of crude.

"It clearly appears ... that sufficient cause exists to issue a temporary restraining order until the merits of the Application can be presented to a jury," Nacogdoches County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz wrote in the order. "Without a temporary restraining order, Plaintiff will suffer immediate and irreparable injury, a violation of his Constitutional rights as delineated by the Texas Constitution."

The temporary injunction went into effect this morning, after Bishop posted a bond with the county court. A trial is scheduled for Dec. 19.

A TransCanada spokesman, Shawn Howard, said the company will seek an "expedited hearing" on the restraining order and noted that Bishop signed an easement agreement with the company three weeks ago. He also said the company has not yet been served with court papers and that it has been authorized to construct the line.

"Under Texas law, TransCanada has been granted the legal authority to construct this pipeline," Howard said in an emailed statement. "Construction has commenced on the property that is the subject of the temporary restraining order and the product the Gulf Coast Pipeline will transport is crude oil."

Activists said the papers would be served via overnight mail.

The litigation is the latest effort from Texas landowners to block construction of Keystone's southern leg from Cushing, Okla., to the Gulf of Mexico coast. The southern leg won President Obama's endorsement earlier this year, even as he holds off on a final decision on whether to approve the northern leg that would begin in Alberta. That decision, which the president has to make because the pipeline crosses an international border, is expected by the spring.

Bishop also sued the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the state's oil industry, and plans to file a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over Keystone's required federal permits, said Chris Taylor, a consultant with the Texas chapter of Public Citizen who is working with pipeline opponents.

"I will continue to stand up and fight for those that cannot fight for themselves against this gross travesty of justice," Bishop said in a statement this morning. "I will continue every effort to repel this foreign invasion and hopefully restore all of the property stolen by TransCanada via fraudulent means, to the rightful owners."

Other landowners also have been fighting TransCanada in court, but previous challenges have been dismissed for procedural reasons, preventing until now judges from considering the distinction between diluted bitumen and crude oil, Taylor said. She said the company is trying to have it both ways, classifying the product as dilbit in some instances to avoid paying into an oil spill liability trust fund and as crude in others to comply with Texas law.

The exemption of oil sands from the spill trust fund was first reported by E&E Daily earlier this year (E&E Daily, Aug. 2).

Nacogdoches County has been the site of several previous protests from Bishop and other landowners opposed to the Keystone pipeline (EnergyWire, Nov. 20).

Bishop, 64, did not immediately respond to an interview request this morning, but he told the Associated Press that TransCanada "lied" about its product. He said Texas law defines crude as "liquid hydrocarbons extracted from the earth at atmospheric temperatures," but that the product from Alberta's oil sands has to be superheated and diluted before it can be transported.

He also did not fear the coming showdown with TransCanada and its cadre of lawyers later this month.

"Bring 'em on. I'm a United States Marine. I'm not afraid of anyone. I'm not afraid of them," he told the AP. "When I'm done with them, they will know that they've been in a fight. I may not win, but I'm going to hurt them."