Dinsmore Earns Unanimous Verdict in $4.8 Million Breach-Of-Contract Case for Big Sandy Company, LP

Dinsmore Lexington litigators Grahmn Morgan, Kristeena Johnson and Elizabeth Barrera, along with local counsel David Baird of Baird & Baird, were pleased to earn a unanimous jury verdict for Big Sandy Company, LP that awarded the client more than $4.8 million in a breach-of-contract claim.

The four-day trial was the culmination of more than nine years of litigation, which began as a dispute over the relocation of a gas pipeline owned by defendants EQT Gathering LLC and Equitable Production Company that was laid across Big Sandy’s coal reserves.

After Big Sandy gave notice on Jan. 23, 2013 that the pipeline needed to be relocated to accommodate mining operations, EQT filed suit, claiming that it did not have to relocate the pipeline or pay for coal that could not be mined because the pipeline was in the way. Big Sandy then countersued for breach of contract. In 2018, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in favor of Big Sandy on a contract interpretation issue. The question of whether Big Sandy had a reasonable basis to believe mining may occur within 12 months so as to trigger the obligation to relocate the pipeline was not resolved until last week, when a Pike County, Kentucky jury agreed with Dinsmore attorneys and awarded Big Sandy the multi-million dollar verdict. 

This is the latest in a string of well-earned victories by Dinsmore litigators, who earlier this spring successfully defended clients Hyundai, Genie and Terex in product liability cases with claims totaling more than $78 million.