In re Complaints of Lycourt-Donovan v. Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. (Slip Opinion)

2017 Ohio 7566, 93 N.E.3d 902, 152 Ohio St. 3d 73
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
Docket2016-0080
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 2017 Ohio 7566 (In re Complaints of Lycourt-Donovan v. Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. (Slip Opinion)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Complaints of Lycourt-Donovan v. Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. (Slip Opinion), 2017 Ohio 7566, 93 N.E.3d 902, 152 Ohio St. 3d 73 (Ohio 2017).

Opinion

O'Connor, C.J.

*73 {¶ 1} This appeal is from orders issued by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ("PUCO"). Appellants Katherine Lycourt-Donovan, Seneca Builders, L.L.C., and Ryan Roth are owners of residential property in the Toledo area who filed complaints against intervening appellee, Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc., after it discontinued natural-gas service to their properties. Columbia Gas discontinued service upon discovering "stray gas" 1 near the homes.

*905 {¶ 2} Natural gas occurs underground and can migrate into the basement of a home through cracks in the foundation, drain lines, sewer lines, or other conduits. If stray gas migrates into a confined area in sufficient concentrations, it can cause a flash fire or explosion when it makes contact with an ignition source. It is undisputed that Columbia Gas's system is not the source of the stray gas found near the homes owned by appellants and that Columbia Gas has no responsibility to remediate the stray gas.

{¶ 3} The PUCO found that the presence of stray gas near the appellants' properties created a verifiable safety hazard that justified Columbia Gas's discontinuing gas service to the homes.

{¶ 4} In their appeal from that order, the property owners assert two propositions of law. They claim that Columbia Gas unlawfully abandoned service and furnished inadequate service. Both claims lack merit. Although we are sympathetic *74 to the property owners' plight, we are not persuaded that Ohio's laws are intended to fault a public utility for taking reasonable steps to protect the safety of its customers and others who live near those customers. We therefore affirm the PUCO's orders.

I. RELEVANT BACKGROUND

A. Stray gas is discovered at Oakside Road and Columbia Gas discontinues service

{¶ 5} On May 24, 2012, the owner of a home on Oakside Road in Toledo called Columbia Gas to report the presence of dead vegetation in her yard. Dead vegetation can indicate a natural-gas leak. Columbia Gas conducted testing at the house, which confirmed the presence of a 3 percent concentration of natural gas at the home's foundation. A natural-gas-in-air mixture in concentrations of 4 to 14 percent can be flammable, so Columbia Gas discontinued natural-gas service to the home while it attempted to determine the nature and source of the stray gas. Columbia Gas performed additional testing on May 25, 2012, to determine whether the house lines and service lines were leaking, but testing by a third-party lab showed that the natural-gas sample taken from the homeowner's yard did not match the natural gas in Columbia Gas's lines.

{¶ 6} On May 29, 2012, the homeowner called Columbia Gas again, this time to report an odor inside her home that she thought might be natural gas. Testing performed that day showed the presence of natural gas in the basement. During a follow-up inspection on May 31, 2012, Columbia Gas detected stray gas near the foundations of 13 homes on Oakside Road, which prompted it to interrupt service to those homes. Based on the follow-up inspection, and a supplemental leak survey performed a few weeks later, Columbia Gas concluded that the stray-gas problem was limited to Oakside Road.

B. Columbia Gas communicates with the customers of Oakside Road and conducts more tests

{¶ 7} On the day of the follow-up inspection, Columbia Gas's manager of communications and community relations, Chris Kozak, and its operations-center manager for the Toledo area, Curtis Anstead, went door-to-door to speak with Oakside Road residents about the stray-gas issue. For those not home, Columbia Gas left a letter on the door explaining that it was stopping natural-gas service for safety reasons. The letter explained that Columbia Gas would restore service once the issue was resolved.

{¶ 8} On June 11, 2012, Kozak met with several Oakside Road residents to discuss the situation. The residents presented Kozak with a list of 33 questions, which Columbia *906 Gas answered the next day. The answers described how Columbia *75 Gas had detected natural gas in the soil, why service had been interrupted, and what could be done to reestablish service.

{¶ 9} On June 15, 2012, Columbia Gas sent another letter to the residents of Oakside Road in which it reiterated the reasons that it had interrupted service and stated that service would be restored once there was a clear indication that no safety concerns were present. Attached to each letter was (1) a diagram showing the locations and results of testing performed at each house the day before, (2) a form for the governmental authority having jurisdiction over the stray-gas issue to sign, assuring that a remediation system had been installed that made it safe for Columbia Gas to restore service and consenting to the restoration of service by Columbia Gas, and (3) a consent form for the property owner to sign, which likewise assured that a remediation system had been installed that made it safe for Columbia Gas to restore service. The diagrams showed that on June 14, 2012, Columbia Gas obtained high readings of 9 percent around the foundation of Lycourt-Donovan's home, 8 percent around the foundation of Ryan Roth's rental property, which is operated and maintained by appellant R&P Investments, Inc., and 8 percent around the foundation of the home owned by Seneca Builders. The detected concentrations were all within the flammability range of a natural-gas-in-air mixture.

{¶ 10} On June 28, 2012, Columbia Gas again tested around the foundations of the Lycourt-Donovan, Roth, and Seneca homes and obtained high readings of 4 percent, 11 percent, and 3 percent, respectively. Another home tested that day registered a high reading of 16 percent.

{¶ 11} By September 25, 2012, the stray gas was dissipating. That day, Columbia Gas obtained high readings around the foundations of the Lycourt-Donovan, Roth, and Seneca Builders homes of 0 percent, 4 percent, and 1.5 percent, respectively.

C. Columbia Gas removes customer accounts, disconnects the line serving Oakside Road, and offers to meet again with the residents

{¶ 12} On August 23, 2012, Columbia Gas sent letters advising appellants that their accounts were being removed from Columbia Gas's system. The letters also stated, "Once the stray gas situation has been abated, and consent has been given that conditions are safe, we look forward to restoring the natural gas service to your home."

{¶ 13} On the same day, Columbia Gas conducted pressure testing on its system to determine whether there were any leaks. The results of the pressure test showed that none of the lines were leaking. Field notes from the pressure test show that Columbia Gas recorded the main line serving Oakside Road as "retired."

*76

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Bluebook (online)
2017 Ohio 7566, 93 N.E.3d 902, 152 Ohio St. 3d 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-complaints-of-lycourt-donovan-v-columbia-gas-of-ohio-inc-slip-ohio-2017.