Feb 28, 2014 3 min read

While Washington County Court has yet to decide whether Sunoco Pipeline should have the power to condemn private properties along its construction path, a comparable court case in York County halted Sunoco in its tracks.

The Court of Common Pleas in York County ruled Monday that Sunoco does not have eminent domain powers and cannot seize property from two people who live in Fairview Township on land Sunoco’s proposed pipeline would run through.

In both Washington and York counties, Sunoco argued in court it is a public utility corporation that can take property without federal approval because it’s involved in developing an interstate pipeline to transport ethane, propane, liquid gas and petroleum products.

Washington County Judge Katherine Emery heard arguments Jan. 21 from Sunoco and counsel representing the owners of 25 properties in this area who challenged Sunoco’s claim to public utility status.

Two of those property owners are Ronald and Sallie Cox, who are fighting to protect the wooded area they own in front of their home on South Spring Valley Road.

The Cox case has become the first to reach a judge here, and its outcome is expected to determine how the remaining cases will proceed through court.

Harrisburg attorney Michael Faherty represented the defendants in Washington County and defendants in the York County case, which was decided by Judge Stephen Linebaugh.

“I expect that the Washington County judge, Judge Emery, will review Judge Linebaugh’s opinion and may reach the same conclusion,” Faherty said. “This wouldn’t be a decision from Judge Linebaugh that would control or require Judge Emery to decide the same way, but the reasoning of Judge Linebaugh may be persuasive to Judge Emery.”

Linebaugh agreed with defendants that Sunoco is not an exception to the state’s Business Corporation Law. By definition, a public utility corporation is any corporation subject to regulation as a public utility by the Public Utility Commission or any other agency.

“In the current case, plaintiff is regulated under the Interstate Commerce Act, and not the Natural Gas Act, and it is regulated as a common carrier, and not as a public utility,” Linebaugh wrote in his opinion. “It is therefore not entitled to condemn property pursuant to the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law.”