Legal Trend. No Pre-condemnation Access. +1 State Supreme Court

Requiring that land owners allow precondemnation access to their land for pipelines is going out of fashion.

The latest court to side against pipelines in eminent domain: The West Virigina State Supreme Court

What did the West Virigina Supreme Court have to say? 

• unconvinced the pipeline serves a public benefit
• if there is no public benefit, there is no eminent domain and there is no access to land without land owner consent.

Why did the court decide there was no public benefit in the pipeline? 

• The court determined that the primary purpose of the pipeline was to move product from Northern West Virginia to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the U.S. 
• “no “definitive evidence” that any non-MVP affiliated gas producers would benefit from the pipeline.”

Charleston Gazette Mail | Landowners win case to block unauthorized pipeline surveys