Posted on 04/03/2015 4:49:03 PM PDT by FewsOrange
Pipeline company files suit against W.Va. landowners
By Tina Alvey REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER | Posted: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 6:30 pm
A company seeking to run a massive natural gas pipeline through the state has followed through on a threat to take legal action against West Virginia landowners who have thus far refused to allow access to their properties.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, (MVP) filed a petition Friday in U.S. District Court in Beckley asking federal authorities to force three corporations and more than 100 other property owners residing in 10 West Virginia counties to permit the developer's agents to survey their land in order to to lay out a route for the 300-mile pipeline.
The lawsuit maintains that each of the named respondents was contacted with a request for consent to survey and that each respondent "failed or refused to permit MVP (to) enter the respondents' properties and/or prevented MVP from completing the necessary survey."
If approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the pipeline will provide a conduit for natural gas from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.
The suit filed against the 103 individuals and three corporations relies upon the doctrine of eminent domain — a power that is given to government and to private companies in certain, limited circumstances, to forcibly purchase private property for a project that serves the public good. MVP asserts that its proposed gas pipeline fits the definition and that "it is necessary to enter the respondents' properties to survey (in order to obtain) necessary rights-of-way, obtain a FERC Certificate and construct the pipeline."
Accordingly, MVP asks the court to issue a declaratory judgment that the pipeline's agents may enter onto the properties in question and to grant preliminary and permanent injunctions ordering landowners to cease barring MVP from accessing their properties.
The suit names 103 people living in Braxton, Nicholas, Monongalia, Harrison, Lewis, Greenbrier, Monroe, Mercer, Summers and Webster counties as respondents. Also on the list of respondents are the Lake Floyd Club, a golf and country club in Harrison County, with a principal corporate office in Bristol; Green Valley Coal Co., with a principal corporate office in Leivasy; and White Pine Inc., a real estate firm with a Lewisburg Post Office box listed as its principal corporate address.
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An MVP attorney, Stephen E. Hastings, sent letters to landowners in February warning that continued resistance to the pipeline company's demands for access to properties for "surveys, appraisals, tests and studies" would likely result in legal action. Hastings gave the property owners a deadline of March 9 for compliance.
Three couples who received letters from Hastings filed preemptive lawsuits against MVP last month, asking circuit courts in Monroe and Summers counties to prevent the developer's agents from entering their properties.
Plaintiffs in the Monroe County suit are Bryan C. and Doris W. McCurdy of Greenville, and plaintiffs in the Summers suit are Thomas T. and Susan A. Bouldin and Donald R. and Mary Ann Milam, all of whom have Alderson mailing addresses but who own property near Pence Springs, in Summers County.
As of Friday, both of those suits had also been transferred to federal court, upon a motion by MVP. In the notices of removal filed in Monroe and Summers counties, MVP asserts that federal authorities have jurisdiction "because the matter in controversy is between citizens of different states and exceeds the sum or value of... ($75,000) exclusive of interest and costs."
MVP is a Delaware limited liability company with a principal office address in Pittsburgh, Pa., while the McCurdys, Bouldins and Milams are all residents of West Virginia.
Appalachian Mountain Advocates senior attorney, Derek O. Teaney, who represents the three couples in their suits against MVP, told The Register-Herald when those actions were filed that MVP does not meet the standard of "public use" set by State Code for eminent domain to apply, because the natural gas carried by the pipeline will not be used by West Virginians. There has been no indication by the developer that the line will do anything other than transport gas from point A to point B, with no distribution to intervening communities or individual customers along the way.
Teaney argues in the suits, "Because the Pipeline will not be put to a public use, Defendant is not invested with the power of eminent domain." And, because MVP is not invested with that power, the suits maintain that MVP "does not have a right to enter Plaintiffs' Property for any purpose."
• • •
The warning letters that were mailed out by Hastings on MVP's behalf came in for a measure of criticism during a Monroe County Commission meeting Wednesday morning.
With a nod to the lawsuits filed by the three Monroe and Summers county couples, Commissioner Shane Ashley turned his sights on the Mountain Valley Pipeline developers.
"They're threatening our people in our county," Ashley fumed. "I'm concerned about them pushing our people around."
He said MVP agents have been driving stakes to facilitate surveys through the middle of residential neighborhoods "without telling people what they're doing." Acknowledging that explanations are not required by law, Ashley said MVP should nonetheless make an effort to allay concerns that entire subdivisions could be condemned to make way for the pipeline.
MVP developers will stage an "open house" at the Union Church of God activity building Monday from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
At first reading I’m with the landowners on this one.
Fyi
Don’t worry, our elected officials will protect us. Even against oil or gas corporations.
Yep.
The results will lay out a proposed plan and each landowner will be more than reasonably paid ... either up front or as a royalty, lay a pipeline that ... if it REALLY bothers you ... PAINT the damned thing.
WV mountain folk are a stubborn lot, and sometimes unreasonably so.
Been there, done that, got the T shirt
Except they're going to lose.
I they don't have it already, the pipeline will have common carrier status -- open to transporting gas from various suppliers and delivering it to any terminal that is economically viable.
The argument that it's not for "public use" isn't going to hold water.
Besides which, I've never understood landowners' objection to a pipeline. They get money for the right-of-way, the construction crew crosses the property once and buries the pipe. And everything is as before, except the landowner has a check.
People walking around their land might find the still....
Sometimes compensation is fair, sometimes not. Usually if it is a private company they will pay well. Sometimes Govt pays well (after all it is only tax money), other times Govt stiffs the land owners.
They might get a better response if they give an estimated price up front.
Problem is that these natural gas companies have been known to rip off property owners in the worst possible way. That’s why they’re so distrusted.
Webster County. Folks might get shot there.
My default is to be with the homeowners on this.
In the case of a golf course, it would make sense to have a pipe under it. My guess is some of the owners have corporate addresses and the letter was lost.
I used to draw maps and property plats for gas pipelines. There were always a few looneytunes holdouts who thought they were going to become millionaires for letting a pipeline cross their property.
The breadth and length of a pipeline might take 80% to 90% of some properties. Not everyone owns 1,000+ acres.
If the pipeline company does not have the power of condemnation, it’s not likely they will succeed.
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We need to see a map to even form a valid opinion on this.
I doubt that the nature of the properties in question is such that the pipe will ultimately have a great effect on most of the land owners.
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This makes sense for utility and transportation lines.
Without having eminent domain for these purposes it would be very difficult to build the roads, transmission lines, fiber optics, water systems, etc. that are necessary in a developed country.
Huh? 8” pipes and 2-3ft offsets is what I remember.
Very difficult. You mean impossible.
If property owner could hold out for immense sumes or prevent construction entirely, then nothing could ever be built.
The Founders knew this, which is why they allowed for takings, if compensated.
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