May 1, 2014 3 min read

The exit of an attorney representing Sunoco Pipeline in a complicated legal battle in Washington County Court has stalled a ruling as to whether the company can impose eminent domain power for easements to construct a Marcellus Shale pipeline.

The new attorney, Alice Johnston of Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell & Hippel in Pittsburgh, was given until May 23 to catch up on the case in a ruling from the bench Wednesday by Judge Katherine B. Emery, the attorney for the defendants said.

“I disagreed,” said Michael Faherty, a Harrisburg attorney representing Ron and Sallie Cox of Chartiers Township in the case.

Johnston replaces Kandice Hull, who works for the same law firm that withdrew Wednesday from a high-profile case Sunoco has before the Public Utility Commission one day after a news report about its close connections to both the PUC and gas industry. StateImpact Pennsylvania reported Wednesday the law firm of McNees, Wallace and Nurick of Harrisburg represented energy companies before the PUC and has worked as counsel to the PUC on oil and gas zoning matters.

Sunoco is asking the PUC to be classified as a public utility corporation, a ruling that, if it wins, could allow the company to one day use eminent domain power to construct interstate pipelines, Faherty said.

He said the PUC denied Sunoco’s request for a quick ruling on its appeal, and likely will hold hearings before it makes a decision.

“I doubt it would be decided as quickly as Sunoco would like,” Faherty said Thursday.

Jeff Shields, communications manager for Sunoco in Philadelphia, said the company does not comment on “its choice of legal counsel.” McNees spokeswoman Vikki Grodner did not return messages Thursday.

Johnston could not be reached.

In the Washington County case, the Coxes are among a string of property owners who are standing in the way of Sunoco completing a 50-mile pipeline from MarkWest Energy’s gas-processing plant in Chartiers to Delmont to hook into an existing, nearly 20-year-old line crossing Pennsylvania into Delaware.

Central to the case is whether or not Emery believes Sunoco to be a public utility, a ruling she initially said during a January hearing would be handed down quickly. The ruling was last expected to be issued by her before the end of April.

The company expected the project known as Mariner East to be under construction last year, but the work was delayed until late April in areas where Sunoco had easements.

Sunoco experienced another setback in February when the Court of Common Pleas in York County ruled the company does not have eminent domain powers and cannot seize property from two people who live in Fairview Township on land where another section of Sunoco’s proposed pipeline would cross.