YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – GreenHeart Companies LLC is seeking unspecified damages against Enbridge Gas Ohio and its subsidiaries, alleging the company’s negligence led to the fatal natural gas explosion at Realty Tower last year, according to a complaint filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
The complaint was filed Wednesday afternoon – one year to the day of the blast. The lawsuit names Enbridge and nine of its subsidiaries, Dominion Energy Inc. and one of its subsidiaries, Columbia Gas of Ohio, MS Consultants Inc., and 10 John Does as defendants.
Defendants acted “with extreme indifference or reckless disregard for the property, life, safety, and health of others despite being aware of their conduct and knowing there was a great probability of causing substantial harm,” the complaint says.
The explosion of May 28, 2024, occurred when a crew hired by GreenHeart cut into a pressurized gas line that was thought to be decommissioned. GreenHeart was hired by the city of Youngstown to remove scrap and debris from a vault underneath the sidewalk that ran parallel to Realty Tower.
GreenHeart’s complaint alleges that between 2008 and 2015, the gas company defendants – Enbridge, Dominion, and Columbia – undertook or were part of a construction project that included work performed at, or adjacent to, Realty Tower. The work included the “decommissioning/deactivating of existing natural gas lines and removal of existing natural gas lines and removal of existing gas meters,” documents say.
“Defendants failed to properly decommission/deactivate and properly cap the natural gas line adjacent to, underneath, and/or parallel to Realty Tower, the very gas line that exploded on or about May 28, 2024,” documents say. “Their failures were hidden, as only the defendants knew of their failures,” court papers say.
The gas companies were responsible for the inspection, service, maintenance, modification, replacement, repair “or all other work to and on the natural gas service line, including the portion of the natural gas service line up to the outlet end of the customer meter, located at the vault adjacent to Realty Tower,” the complaint stated.
GreenHeart said in its complaint that the company relied on the belief that “all gas company defendants” would properly deactivate the line, “making it safe in compliance with applicable law.” GreenHeart noted in its filing that the company was “given no notice or information by defendants to the contrary.”
GreenHeart’s lawsuit also alleges negligence on the part of MS Consultants Inc., a Columbus-based architectural and engineering firm with offices in Youngstown.
According to the complaint, MS provided professional services for the other defendants related to the earlier construction project that included the decommissioning of the gas line and removal of gas meters.
“MS Consultants breached its duty of care,” the complaint alleges, “when it knew or should have known that the natural gas distribution and service lines were defective, unapproved, improperly installed, unsafe, non-complying and/or no longer in use.”
GreenHeart alleges negligence on six different counts in its filing, requesting that it be awarded compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $25,000, plus interest, attorneys’ fees, and court costs. The complaint requests a jury trial.
The explosion rocked downtown and resulted in the death of Akil Drake, a Chase Bank employee. Drake’s family was awarded a $6.1 million settlement in April to close a wrongful death lawsuit that was filed earlier.
YO Properties 47 LLC, the owner of the building; LY Property Management LLC, the property manager; and GreenHeart Companies LLC will pay $3 million of the settlement. Enbridge/Dominion will pay $2.9 million; and A Nieder Architects and MS Consultants each will pay $100,000, according to documents that were unsealed this week.
The blast also injured several others, while it displaced more than 20 residents in the apartment complex. Businesses such as the DoubleTree Hotel and Bistro 1907 – now Casa di Canzonetta – were closed for weeks, and a host of other lawsuits have been filed as a result of the explosion. Damage to Realty Tower was so extensive that the landmark building was demolished.
Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board released new documents related to the Realty Tower blast as its investigation into the causes of the explosion continues.
Among the board’s findings was that there were flaws in Dominion/Enbridge’s record keeping systems. Enbridge acquired Dominion Energy’s Ohio assets last year.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio reviewed the system, which showed the service line outside of Realty Tower as abandoned.
“PUCO discovered there were several groups of services in the system that may be listed as abandoned inaccurately,” the NTSB group chair’s report states. “One group looks like they were shifted to an abandoned status through an IT push to clean up some data.”
The NTSB has yet to issue its final report on the explosion and its investigation is ongoing.
Pictured at top: The Realty Tower in downtown Youngstown after a fatal May 28, 2024, natural gas explosion.