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No trial for suit about cut trees
YOUNGSTOWN
A judge has dismissed without a trial a Struthers couple’s civil lawsuit against Ohio Edison and its tree-cutter.
Atty. Raymond M. DeLost and his wife, Maria, sued Ohio Edison Co. and Penn Line Service Inc. of Scottdale, Pa., in 2008, demanding $25,000 in compensatory damages and more than $10 million in punitive damages after the couple alleged that the companies sneaked onto their property and cut down 14 white pine trees without their permission.
The trees were in a utility easement that crosses the DeLost’s 2/3 of an acre residential lot.
“Defendants had a proper easement and were permitted to eliminate vegetation that interfered with transmission lines,” wrote Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in her judgment entry granting summary judgment to the utility and tree-cutter.
“A landowner has no right to recover additional compensation for improvements, such as the planting of trees, which inhibit or interfere with a previously granted easement,” Judge Sweeney ruled Thursday.
The DeLosts said their trees did not interfere with the power lines. Atty. DeLost said the nearest tree growth was more than 30 feet from the utility lines.
In their lawsuit, the DeLosts said the defendants trespassed onto their property on July 1, 2008, and cut down these and other trees, leaving behind the stumps and devaluing their property by making it unsightly.
Atty. DeLost said he plans to appeal Judge Sweeney’s decision to the 7th District Court of Appeals on the grounds that a trial is necessary to determine whether the trees would have interfered with the power lines.
Atty. DeLost also said he has another complaint pending before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, in which he maintains that Ohio Edison violated its own vegetation management policies by cutting down the trees.