Natural Gas Pipeline

CPMI provided expert testimony in Utility Line Services, Inc. v PVR Marcellus Gas Gathering, LLC—a three-week jury trial in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. CPMI’s testimony supported a $24.3 million claim for construction of 17 miles of a 30-inch diameter pipeline for natural gas extraction. The project included 41 pipeline crossings through streams, swales, or wetlands and 1,800 feet of horizontal directional drilling under a roadway and two watercourses. Right-of-way access, permitting, unusually severe weather conditions, and work restriction periods related to stream crossings delayed the contractor’s work. The contractor filed a claim for unpaid contract balance; wrongful termination; and reimbursement for boring stream crossings, overtime, and standby costs. CPMI conducted a thorough schedule delay analysis and critiqued the opposing expert’s as-built driving path methodology. CPMI prepared an expert report, a rebuttal report, and testified at trial. The contractor was awarded 100% of its $24.3 million claim plus interest and attorney’s fees (including CPMI’s fees).

The verdict …

The 2014 ruling was believed to be the largest recovery ever awarded under the Pennsylvania Contractor and Subcontractor Payment Act (CASPA), which was enacted in 1994 to protect contractors from having payment withheld for work they have completed.