A federal judge on Thursday tapped on the brakes — at least for now — in Mountain Valley Pipeline’s effort to fast-track one of two lawsuits against hundreds of landowners seeking to use eminent domain to gain easements for construction of its more than 300-mile natural gas project across West Virginia and Virginia.
U.S. District Judge John Copenhaver indicated that he would not be granting a request from MVP lawyers that all of the landowners in the company’s West Virginia lawsuit be forced to respond by Dec. 4 to the company’s motions for summary judgment to force unwilling landowners to allow surveys of their property and to “immediate access and possession” of those properties to begin construction of the pipeline.
“There is no prospect that the court is going to require an answer by December 4 to those motions,” Copenhaver said during a morning status conference he held in open court in Charleston.
“The court wants these people located,” Copenhaver said. “The court is expecting due process.”
Charleston Gazette-Mail -Ken Ward Jr. – 11.16.2017
Posted by: Nelson Bailey
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