WILLIAMSPORT - The Columbia County Redevelopment Authority (CCRA) has requested to be removed again from a lawsuit filed by the few remaining Centralia residents who are seeking to stop the condemnation proceedings begun in 1993 due to an underground coal fire.
Last month, U.S. Middle District Judge Matthew W. Brann removed six of the seven individuals as plaintiffs and granted dismissal motions of the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), one of its lawyers, the Wilkes-Barre law firm of Rosenn Jenkins and Greenwald, two of its attorneys and Blaschak Coal Corp.
Stephanie E. DiVittore, the attorney for CCRA with Rhoads and Sinon LLP, Harrisburg, filed the court documents May 3 and claimed CCRA should have been removed April 19 with the other individuals.
The court originally granted CCRA's motion to dismiss in part, but claimed the 14th Amendment equal protection violation could proceed based on the determination that CCRA did not claim it is immune from the suit.
However, DiVittore argues, CCRA "made a specific claim that it was, in fact, immune from the plaintiffs' claims."
If their reconsideration is granted, the only remaining defendant would be DCED Secretary C. Alan Walker on the equal protection claim.
Last July, the 3rd U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the decisions of U.S. Middle District Judges Christopher C. Connor and A. Richard Caputo, who denied requests for an injunction to stop the condemnation proceedings.
The appeals court opinion stated property owners have the remedy of seeking monetary compensation and it is unlikely they would prevail in their civil rights suit.
The plaintiffs have argued they have been treated differently because the government withdrew its declaration of taking for one property and let the owner keep it.
The fire originated in 1962 in a refuse dump in an abandoned strip mine in Conyngham Township and spread to an underground coal vein under the borough. Almost all property owners accepted buyouts voluntarily or after condemnation proceedings were instituted.
The plaintiffs have alleged the fire never posed a threat to the health or safety of the residents but was used as a pretext to allow access to billions of dollars worth of coal that could be mined by Blaschak. That allegation has been denied.