SEVENTH CIRCUIT AFFIRMS THAT ENBRIDGE PIPELINES, EASEMENT OWNER, HAD CONSIDERABLE LEEWAY ON UPKEEP OF OLD PIPE IT WANTS TO REPLACE

摘要

District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, of the Northern District of Illinois, sitting by designation, together with Seventh Circuit Judges Bauer and Posner, on 1/24/11 unanimously decided in favor of Enbridge Pipelines (Illinois) LLC who was defending its claim that easements to operate an oil pipeline under certain property remain in force. The defendants, who were landowners, contended that Enbridge’s several predecessors, and Enbridge itself, forfeited the easements by failing to maintain the pipeline in good working condition. The Court, however, affirmed the lower courts and adopted a kind of maintenance-“lite” interpretation of a pipeline’s obligation to keep up facilities that may be useful in the future. According to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, minimal maintenance, “preserving the option of a future use not just of the easements but of the existing physical pipeline,” was enough to establish that the owners maintained the pipeline within any meaning that could reasonably be assigned to the easements and had no intention of abandoning it. If the owners had intended to do so they wouldn’t have “spent even a penny on maintenance.” So, the federal court determined that “the district courts had jurisdiction and the easements have not been forfeited.” Enbridge Pipelines (Illinois) LLC v. Michael Moore, et al, Nos. 10-2268, 10-2305, 10-2313, 10-2850 (7th Circuit).