Southeast Supply Header (SESH), a limited liability corporation consisting of two members, CenterPoint Energy Gas Transmission and Spectra Energy Transmission, purchase an easement from Donald and Erin Schultz in order to install a natural gas pipeline crossing a 40-acre tract in Mobile County, Alabama owned by the Schultzes. The easement includes a fifty-foot wide permanent right-of-way and an additional temporary workspace. SESH also negotiates an Advance Damage Release (the Release), for which it pays the Schultzes $10,900. The Release covers all damages, "present and future, to interests of the undersigned arising from or related to the surveying, preparation, laying and construction of a pipeline and appurtenances under, upon, and across the land described in" the easement, and also "all damages to real or personal property and any and all other damages resulting from the construction of [SESH's] proposed pipeline." The pipeline that SESH installs traverses the Schultzes' land and continues onto the neighboring property to the northwest. The Schultzes complain that their property became flooded by stormwater runoff from SESH's easement when it rained, which also caused their septic system to overflow, thus diminishing their property value.
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