CHARLESTON – Mountaineer Gas Company has filed a lawsuit blaming West Virginia-American Water Company for last month’s gas outage that left more than 1,100 customers on Charleston’s West Side without service for more than a week.
According to the complaint filed December 5 in Kanawha Circuit Court, MGC says the rupture of a water line November 10 was so powerful it punctured a gas line. The water then flowed into MGC pipelines and into homes, businesses and gas appliances.
“Mountaineer was forced to interrupt gas service to customers and undertake emergency repairs to gas lines (both gas company owned and customer owned) and in many cases replace customers’ appliances,” the complaint states. “Approximately 46 miles of gas lines were infiltrated with water as a result of the rupture of WVAW’s water main.”
R. Booth Goodwin II
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MGC says it had to shut down certain gas pipelines until the water could be purged by trained crews. It also says some customer appliances were damaged, and MGC says it paid costs associated with repair and replacement of customer-owned service pipes and appliances in addition to having to repair its own gas pipelines.
“We firmly believe the interruption of gas service to our customers is a direct result of the failure of the West Virginia American Water Company facilities, and we feel West Virginia American Water should be responsible for the significant costs incurred by Mountaineer,” MGC Senior Vice President Moses Skaff told WSAZ-TV. “The company has worked around the clock to minimize the interruption in service and endeavored to keep lines of communication with local officials and customers open, and the company will continue to do so.
“However, due to the pending legal proceedings, Mountaineer will focus communications on ongoing developments rather than the matters at issue in the court actions.”
The complaint also mentions the three class action lawsuits that have been filed against MGC and WVAW because of the outage that lasted as long as two weeks for some customers.
“The interruption of gas service to customers caused significant damages to Mountaineer, including repair costs, overtime wages and other expenses related to utilization of both local and non-local repair crews, lost revenues, loss of goodwill and reputational damage,” the complaint states. “In addition, Mountaineer has been compelled to devote management time, effort and resources to address both the service interruptions and class actions.”
MGC says it used its best efforts to respond, mitigate and resolve the issues. It accuses WVAW of trespass, negligence and implied indemnity and says WVAW is liable for all expenses, losses and damages caused by the water main rupture.
“Mountaineer and WVAW share a special relationship which gives rise to a claim of indemnity by Mountaineer as to WVAW,” the complaint states. “Thus, WVAW owes a positive duty to Mountaineer with respect to its operations and maintenance of WVAW facilities located in the vicinity of Mountaineer’s facilities.
“Mountaineer is without fault as regards to harm caused by WVAW’s water line rupture, flow of WVAW water into Mountaineer Gas distribution pipelines, the damage to its facilities and the allegations of the class action complaints and no independent act or omission of Mountaineer caused or contributed to the injuries complained of by the class action plaintiffs or any other harm experienced by Mountaineer’s customers.”
MGC seeks compensatory damages, indemnification, court costs, attorney fees, expenses and other relief.
MGC is being represented by Booth Goodwin, Benjamin B. Ware and Richard D. Owen of Goodwin & Goodwin in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Senior Status Judge Jim Rowe.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-1067
