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Homeowners want fair pay for pipeline, lawyer says
BOARDMAN
The owners of four Boardman homes want fair compensation and assurances their land will be properly restored if Sunoco installs a new oil pipeline in its easement through their land, according to a Columbus lawyer, who represents them.
Sunoco Pipeline L.P. of Philadelphia has filed complaints in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, which allege the homeowners breached the pipeline easement by not allowing Sunoco to install an additional oil pipeline.
In its complaints, Sunoco said a 1930-vintage easement gives it the right to install for $150 the new pipeline, adjacent to 6-inch and 10-inch pipelines already buried in the 10-foot-wide easement.
The complaints ask the court for an injunction barring the homeowners from interfering with the new installation.
“Our clients do not believe that an easement that was executed in 1930 has any full force and effect in 2014,” said Atty. William Goldman of Columbus, the homeowners’ lawyer.
“We don’t think that the company, Sunoco, has a valid claim to do what they want to do, and certainly not without paying a substantial consideration,” Goldman said.
Jeff Shields, Sunoco’s communications manager, declined comment because he said the company doesn’t do so on pending litigation.
In its injunction request, Sunoco said the multimillion-dollar project, known as the Allegheny Access Pipeline, “will require only temporary excavation,” after which the land will be reclaimed.
No court hearings have been scheduled, and no injunctions have been issued concerning Sunoco’s complaints.
The new pipeline across northern Ohio will transport refined petroleum products from Midwestern refineries to eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Sunoco filed the complaints recently against Mark P. and Rosemary C. Robinson and Rocco DiGennaro Jr. and Theresa L. DiGennaro, all of Glenwoods Court, Suzanne Aey-Tyler and Craig Tyler of Glenwood Avenue; and Stephen F. Sullivan III and Angela Sullivan of Green Bay Drive.
Aey-Tyler and Theresa DiGennaro deferred all questions to Goldman.
Although they would concede that Sunoco likely has the right to install the new, 12-inch, coated steel pipeline, the homeowners want the just compensation guaranteed to them by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a guarantee of land restoration after the installation, Goldman said.
If it were adjusted for inflation, the $150 per homeowner, per pipe installation figure contained in the 1930 agreement would probably be $4,000 to $5,000 today, without taking into account any depreciation in home value caused by the pipeline easement’s existence, Goldman said.
He added that there is legal precedent for adjusting such compensation for inflation.
Goldman said the homeowners should be compensated for the fair market value of their land within the easement and for depreciation.
The owners of all four Boardman homes have rejected Sunoco’s compensation offers, which have ranged as high as $5,000, Goldman said.
Goldman said he and his law partner, Michael Braunstein, have settled 104 similar cases with Sunoco involving landowners in Seneca, Huron, Ashland and Wayne counties.
Goldman declined to specify the average settlement amount in those particular cases, but he said the average Ohio settlement in such cases is $30 to $60 per foot of pipe, not counting any compensation for depreciation.
Each case is different, based on the home value, the nature of the land use and the perceived environmental and other impacts of the pipe, he added.