Lawsuit alleges Big Rivers damaged Clark property
An Owensboro property owner has sued Big Rivers Electric Corp., alleging the power company damaged his property during construction of a transmission operations center on the city's west side.
Specifically, CTC Investments, which is co-owned by Gerald A. "Tony" Clark and Carolyn Clark, alleges workers building the control center entered CTC's adjacent property at 3880 Lee Rudy Road and cut down trees and shrubs that created a boundary between the property the Big Rivers site on Industrial Drive.
In the response, the attorney representing Big Rivers denies all of the allegations, and has filed notice with the court that it seeks to reach a settlement in the dispute.
Big Rivers purchased 114 acres in late 2021 with plans to build the control center near the Green River Area Development District. The property was annexed into the city, and about 60 employees are expected to work out of the facility, officials said previously.
The suit was filed in the spring in Daviess Circuit Court. The complaint says when work began on the Big Rivers property last October, "the defendant (Big Rivers) removed all boundary line trees and shrubs between the Big Rivers property and the CTC property," and "the defendant removed all trees and shrubs solely on the CTC property."
The complaint says Big Rivers "did not request or obtain (CTC's) permission before removing the boundary line trees or the trees located on CTC's property. The complaint says CTC then hired a surveyor, and the results indicated trees and shrubs on CTC's property were removed.
The complaint says, in March, Big Rivers sent Tony Clark a letter "wrongfully accusing Mr. Clark and (the surveyor) of trespassing on Big Rivers' property" to conduct the survey.
The complaint alleges intentional trespass and negligent trespass and damage to property.
In his response to the complaint, Big Rivers' attorney Park L. Priest cites several defenses. Regarding work at the control center site, the response says Big Rivers "hired an independent contractor to design and construct a Transmissions Operations Center (and) denies that it is responsible or liable for any action or inaction of its independent contractor or any entity hired by the independent contractor."
Regarding the removal of the trees, the response says Big Rivers "denies the accusations as worded and any legal conclusions attempted to be asserted" and says any removal was "performed by another entity ... without suggesting or admitting that any tree and/or shrub removal was on (CTC's) property and/or inappropriate, for which (Big Rivers) is liable."
The response says Big Rivers "denies each and every allegation, statement and averment as set out in the plaintiff's complaint, unless expressly admitted" in the response.
The last court action was filed in July, when Big Rivers filed an "offer of judgement." The court rules of civil procedure allow parties to pursue an offer of judgement to avoid litigation and to "expeditiously effect a settlement and avoid payment of additional costs of litigation, including attorney's fees," the notice in the court file says.
The notice does not outline the terms of the offer made to CTC by Big Rivers.
The case is currently active in Daviess Circuit Court, but a next court date in the case has not been set, according to the state court system's website.
