Suit against power plant to be refiled in Fayette County Court
A class-action suit against Hatfield’s Ferry Power Station and FirstEnergy Corp., filed in August by Masontown residents who claimed their property has been damaged by the plant’s discharge, has been voluntarily dismissed in federal court, and is expected to be refiled in Fayette County Court.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Julius and Francine Jesso and Sheilah Novasky, as well as a potential class of about 1,000 homeowners within a 1½-mile radius of the power station, nearly ended in a default judgment in October after the defendants apparently failed to plead or otherwise defend themselves within the allotted amount of time.
Days after the default judgment was entered, FirstEnergy Corp. filed a motion to strike it, claiming the defendants were improperly served with the complaint and that the wrong company was being sued. According to the filing, FirstEnergy Corp. does not own or operate Hatfield’s Ferry — FirstEnergy Generation Corp. does.
Peter Macuga and James DePasquale, attorneys for the plaintiffs, filed a stipulation regarding the motion to strike the default judgment, essentially agreeing to the motion, shortly thereafter.
On Friday, DePasquale said that since the case deals with a corporate FirstEnergy entity whose sole place of business is the state of Pennsylvania, and the plaintiffs are also citizens of the state, the federal district court has no jurisdiction to hear the case.
According to DePasquale, the suit will be refiled in Fayette County Court, and he said he expects that to happen by the middle of the month.
The plaintiffs argued in the federal complaint that during the course of normal business operations, the power station “knowingly generates, utilizes and discharges into the open atmosphere chemicals, gases and particulates,” and that officials for the parent company and the power station knew or should have known that some of those compounds are “extra hazardous and are known human carcinogens.”
The chemicals and gaseous and coal combustion particulates used and discharged by the plant are “harmful and noxious and have caused substantial damage to, substantial loss of use of and substantial interference with plaintiffs’ properties,” according to the suit. The plaintiffs claimed to be prisoners in their own homes.
Hatfield’s Ferry, along with the FirstEnergy-owned Mitchell Power Station in Washington County, were both deactivated in October. FirstEnergy cited low demand and market prices for electricity, and the cost of retrofitting them to meet federal mercury emission regulations that go into effect in 2015, as the reasons for deactivating the plants.