On September 30, 2015,
the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia upheld the constitutionality
of a state law allowing natural gas companies to enter private
owners’ property without their permission in order to perform a land survey.
In
June 2014, landowners in Nelson County received a notice of intent to enter
property from Dominion Transmission, Inc. to conduct surveys for a proposed Atlantic
Coast Pipeline project. The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas
through Nelson County.
In
September 2014, the landowners filed a lawsuit against Dominion Transmission,
Inc., alleging that Virginia Code § 56-49.01, “‘both on its face and as applied,’
violates the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions, and is therefore void and
unenforceable.” The landowners argued that the state law deprives them of their
property rights to exclude others. One month later, Dominion Transmission, Inc.,
filed a motion to dismiss landowners’ complaint for lack of subject matter
jurisdiction and failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted under
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The U.S
District Court granted a motion to dismiss filed by Dominion Transmission, Inc.
concluding that landowners do not have a constitutionally protected property
right to exclude in this case. The District Court reasoned that “[w]hile the
plaintiffs certainly have an interest in excluding others from their
properties, that interest is outweighed by the interest the Commonwealth has in
facilitating the supply of natural gas.”
Information
about the case is available at docket no. 3:14-cv-00041.
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
10/02/2015
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