Peters v. KC Transp., Inc.

DANNY PETERS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. KC TRANSPORT, INC., et al., Defendants.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 2:15-cv-15609

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF WEST VIRGINIA CHARLESTON DIVISION

August 29, 2016

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

Pending before the Court are Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand and Motion to Expedite, Defendant Gary Corns' Motion to Dismiss, and an unopposed motion by Defendants Blackhawk Mining WV, LLC, Gary Corns, and Hampden Coal, LLC for leave to supplement Defendants' Response to Plaintiffs' Motion to Remand. For the reasons discussed herein, the Court DENIES the motion for leave to supplement, (ECF No. 36), and Plaintiffs' remand motion, (ECF No. 11), GRANTS Defendant Corns' motion to dismiss, (ECF No. 6), and DENIES AS MOOT Plaintiffs' motion for expedited consideration of their remand motion, (ECF No. 31).

I. Background

This case concerns the intersection of the defendants' coal mining and trucking activities and the plaintiffs' property rights. Plaintiffs Danny and Dreama Peters are lifelong residents of Logan County, West Virginia and, since August 2006, have lived at an address "near the mouth of Accoville Hollow Road, Country Road 16/1" in Accoville, West Virginia. (ECF No. 1, Ex. 1 (the "Complaint") at ¶¶ 1, 6, 22.) Accoville Hollow Road is also home to a coal mine which is currently owned (along with other corporate entities not named as defendants in this case) by Defendant Blackhawk Mining WV, LLC ("Blackhawk") and operated by Defendant Hampden Coal, LLC ("Hampden"). (Id. ¶¶ 3-4.) The coal mine is alternatively known as the Buffalo Gas No. 2 Deep Mine and the Washington Mine, and will hereinafter be referred to as the Washington Mine. In addition, Blackhawk owns and controls, and Hampden operates, a coal preparation plant ("Mingo No. 1") "where Hampden sends the coal from the Washington Mine for beneficiation." (Id. ¶ 3.) Defendants assert, and Plaintiffs do not contest, that both Hampden and Blackhawk are Delaware limited liability companies and that neither company has any members that are citizens of West Virginia.¹ (ECF No. 1 (Def.'s Notice of Removal) ¶¶ 8-9.)

Defendants' coal mining operation involves the transportation of coal mined in the Washington Mine to other locations, including the Mingo No. 1 preparation plant, for processing and, eventually, sale. Plaintiffs allege that the Washington Mine was opened at some point after they moved to Accoville Hollow in 2006², and that "[b]y April 24, 2015," the mine was officially listed by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection as "moving coal." (Id. ¶ 27.) Around this same time, the permits to operate the Washington Mine were transferred to Blackhawk and Hampden and Blackhawk began to "run coal" on Accoville Hollow Road. (Id. ¶¶ 24, 26-27.) Coal trucks are the preferred method by which the defendant mining companies "move" their coal from one place to another. In order to facilitate this process, they enlisted the services of Defendant KC Transport, Inc. ("KC Transport"), a business that "provid[es] trucking services to the coal mining industry." (Id. ¶ 2.) Plaintiffs allege that KC Transport has its principal place of business in West Virginia. (Id.) Defendants, on the other hand, assert that KC Transport's principal place of business is in Virginia and that the corporate entity is "a citizen of Virginia for purposes of diversity jurisdiction." (ECF No. 1 ¶ 7.)

After negotiations with the mining defendants, KC Transport established an industrial trucking operation on the property immediately adjacent to Plaintiffs' home. (Id. ¶¶ 28, 31-33.) KC Transport "haul[s] coal from the Washington Mine to the Mingo No.1 coal preparation plant," (id. ¶ 34), and the purpose of the facility that currently operates next door to the plaintiffs is to store and maintain the coal trucks and related equipment that Blackhawk and Hampden use to transport coal out of the Washington Mine. (Id. ¶ 33-34.) Throughout the Complaint, Plaintiffs refer to KC Transport's trucking facility as the "Staging Area."

The current dispute arises from the alleged impact that Defendants' transportation of coal has had on Plaintiffs' property. Plaintiffs state that the purpose of the instant lawsuit is "to remedy the damage caused by Defendants unlawfully operating a coal trucking route, and a major Staging Area and maintenance lot for coal trucks, immediately adjacent to the Plaintiffs' home in a residential community." (ECF No. 1, Ex. 1 at 1.) Specifically, Plaintiffs object to the placement of the coal road in question, arguing that it should not be placed in such close proximity to their home when other less intrusive routes are readily available.³ (See id. ¶ 74 (alleging that thedefendants are in violation of various state statutory provisions as the result of "declining to develop their haul road so that it connects to Route 10 directly, and by instead routing excessive truck traffic through the small residential neighborhood on Accoville Hollow Road"). Plaintiffs also complain about the mining defendants' failure to properly wash and cover their coal trucks, a failure which has allegedly led to multiple state statutory violations. (Id. ¶ 52-53.)

The primary grievance, however, is the nuisance created by KC Transport's coal truck maintenance operation. According to Plaintiffs, every day from "Monday through Saturday, beginning at about 6:00 or 6:30 [a.m.], seven to eight trucks are idling and moving around the Staging Area." (Id. ¶ 38.) These trucks are often fully loaded with coal when they arrive for maintenance, and Plaintiffs' allege that they are frequently "left idling for over two hours at a time . . . so that on the Peters' porch they can smell the diesel fumes." (Id. ¶ 41-42.) In addition, Plaintiffs allege that KC Transport's servicing operation is a noisy business that operates heavy machinery in a manner that "causes a loud and clattering noise" and makes repairs "that sound like the banging of a sledge hammer on metal." (Id. ¶ 40.) In addition to the noise created by the various maintenance activities, Plaintiffs allege that the defendants' activities at the staging area have caused thick layers of dust to accumulate on Plaintiffs' vehicles, house, and personal property. (Id. ¶ 45.) Finally, Plaintiffs allege that KC Transport has located "two foul-smelling porta-potties right in front of [their] home when there are numerous other suitable locations for those porta-potties." (Id. ¶ 50.)

Such is the general structure of the Complaint—it is directed at the alleged injury to property created by (1) KC Transport's operation of a coal trucking staging area next door to Plaintiffs' home, and (2) the coal mining defendants' failure to clean, cover, and appropriately manage their coal trucks as they operate on a haul road through Plaintiffs' neighborhood. None of this activity is alleged to have been undertaken by any individual personally. The Complaint does, however, name one individual defendant in addition to the corporate entities described above: Gary Corns, Blackhawk's "land manager" with "responsibility for representing the land interests of both Blackhawk and Hampden." (Id. ¶ 5.) There are no allegations that Corns either personally engaged in any of the offensive activities identified in the Complaint as harming Plaintiffs' property or had the authority to direct or control those activities. Rather, as the Complaint makes clear, Corns' role at Blackhawk was to represent the land interests of the coal mining defendants and negotiate with landowners who might be affected by coal-related operations.

Accordingly, Plaintiffs' specific allegations with respect to Corns emphasize his representations as a negotiator; Corns is named in this complaint because he "previously coordinated a relocation agreement," involving the plaintiffs and in response to a similar coal industry nuisance, and represented that "no such industrial nuisance would occur near the new home in Accoville."⁴ (Id. at 1.) Despite these prior representations, Blackhawk and Hampden began running coal near the plaintiffs' new home. As a result, they had Corns meet with "an individual named Kenny Compton regarding the possibility of bringing an industrial truckingoperation to the property immediately adjacent to Mr. and Mrs. Peters' new home," (ECF No. 1, Ex. 1 ¶ 28), and negotiate with the plaintiffs about once more relocating. Sometime after those meetings, the Complaint alleges, Kenny Compton and KC Transport set up the truck maintenance facility at issue. Beginning on August 27, 2015, Kenny Compton, who is not named as a defendant to the current action, "has maintained a general presence on the site in a supervisory capacity, managing the workforce and the traffic of the trucks for KC Transport's business."⁵ (Id. ¶ 34.)

On the basis of these allegations Plaintiffs assert claims for nuisance, trespass, negligence, prima facie negligence based on alleged violations of public safety statutes governing surfacemining and the commercial transportation of coal, and direct causes of action under each of these statutes. Plaintiffs also seek punitive damages based on the "willful, wanton, malicious, reckless, oppressive, and/or criminally indifferent" conduct of the defendants. (ECF No. 1, Ex. 1 ¶ 83.)

Plaintiffs originally filed this action in the Circuit Court of Logan County. On November 25, 2015, Defendants filed a notice of removal invoking this Court's diversity jurisdiction. In particular, Defendants assert that KC Transport is a Virginia corporation with principal place of business in Virginia and that both Blackhawk and Hampden are limited liability corporations organized under the laws of Delaware and having no West Virginia citizens as members.⁶ (ECF No. 1, ¶¶ 7-9.) Further, although Defendants do not dispute that Defendant Gary Corns is a West Virginia resident, they argue that his citizenship can be disregarded for purposes of determining diversity...