Ohio Appellate Judges Question Pipeline Co.'s Interpretation of Easement

LIMA, Ohio - An Ohio appellate court has reversed a trial court and allowed a landowner to pursue reimbursement for trees and shrubs removed from a pipeline "right of way" despite the landowner's plea that they were planted under a wildlife conservation program. Strahm, et al. v. Buckeye Pipe Line Co., No. 1-10-60 (Ohio Ct. App., 3rd Dist.).

The three-judge panel was unanimous in their opinion that the language granting the original easements to a 1947 predecessor of Buckeye Pipe Line Co. did not appear to extend to the right-of-way clearing undertaken by Buckeye on land owned by Robert C. …