Here’s the Brief in Opposition, in Like v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC, No. 18-1206 (Apr. 17, 2019), the case which we’ve been following (and in which we filed this amici brief).
This is the case in which landowners are challenging the district court’s issuance of an injunction in a Natural Gas Act taking which allow a private condemnor to obtain immediate possession of the land being condemned even though the Natural Gas Act does not delegate to pipeline condemnors the quick-take power.
Here’s the Question Presented as framed by the pipeline:
Whether the decision of the court below affirming the issuance of an injunction granting possession of specific rights of way on each of the Petitioners’ properties by the district court under the Natural Gas Act, after a two day hearing, and after the district court granted partial summary judgment and determined that Transco had the authority to condemn the rights of way under the Natural Gas Act, conflicts with the decisions of this Court or the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Northern Border Pipeline Co. v. 86.72 Acres of Land, 144 F.3d 469 (7th Cir. 1998).
Compare how the Petitioners put it:
Notwithstanding the Act’s limited delegation, are district courts empowered to enter preliminary injunctions giving private companies immediate possession of land before final judgment in Natural Gas Act condemnations?
Stay tuned for the Petitioners’ reply.
Barista’s note: the other petition raising the same issue (against the same private condemnor) is set for conference at the Court on April 26, 2019, after the pipeline waived its right to respond.
Brief in Opposition, Like v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC, No. 18-1206 (Apr. 17, 2019)