{"id":16105,"date":"2016-03-10T21:51:57","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T21:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/independentweekender.com\/?p=16105"},"modified":"2016-03-18T19:25:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T19:25:48","slug":"dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Dimock water case: Jury awards millions to families"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Monica<\/a>

Monica Marta-Ely with husband N. Scott Ely and attorney Leslie Lewis react Thursday after an eight-member jury found Cabot Oil & Gas was negligent in the drilling of wells nears their Dimock Twp. home. The jury awardd a total of $4.24M to the Ely and Hubert families who the the suit against the company. Cabot plans to appeal the verdict. STAFF PHOTO\/STACI WILSON<\/p><\/div>\n

BY STACI WILSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

A federal jury awarded two Dimock families over $4 million in damages after finding Cabot Oil & Gas Co. was negligent in its drilling of nearby wells. The jury, which began deliberations Wednesday afternoon, returned its verdict just after 11 a.m. on Thursday in Middle District Court in Scranton.<\/p>\n

The eight-member jury found Cabot created a private nuisance by contaminating water wells on the Ely and Hubert properties along Carter Road in Dimock Twp. and depriving the property owners from full enjoyment of their properties. The plaintiffs claimed that nearby drilling made their water undrinkable and they had to transport water for water buffaloes to serve their home.<\/p>\n

The jury awarded Scott Ely and his wife, Monica Marta Ely, both $1.3 million; and their three children were each awarded $50,000 in damages. Raymond Hubert and his wife, Victoria, were each awarded $720,000. Their child was also awarded $50,000.<\/p>\n

After the jury was excused from the courtroom, Cabot\u2019s attorney told U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Carlson that they planned to appeal the verdict, based on what they alleged as \u201cmisconduct\u201d throughout the trial by Leslie Lewis, the attorney representing the Ely and Hubert families in the case. Speaking to the court, Cabot attorney Jeremy Mercer said Lewis had repeatedly mentioned evidence that had been excluded from the case. He estimated Lewis had been interrupted by the court three times during her closing arguments and her closing contained speculation that was not in evidence. He also said the Cabot\u2019s objections, which resulted in numerous sidebars, served to make it appear that the company was \u201chiding something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge acknowledged the oral motions made by Cabot, and noted written motions needed to be filed in the next 28 days.
\nFollowing the verdict, a tearful Scott Ely said the seven-year battle with the drilling company had been a long haul. \u201cWe were going up against an extraordinary industry,\u201d Ely said. \u201cI hope it lets people know to stand strong and stand tall. People shouldn\u2019t be afraid to stand up for their rights. We stood by our truth and that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the courthouse, Ray Hubert said he felt \u201cvindicated\u201d by the jury\u2019s verdict. \u201cWe were up against a lot of odds. I\u2019m glad it\u2019s over for now. Now we\u2019re in the right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cabot released the following statement: \u201cCabot is surprised at the jury\u2019s verdict given the lack of evidence provided by the plaintiffs in support of their nuisance claim. The verdict disregards overwhelming scientific and factual evidence that Cabot acted as a prudent operator in conducting its operations. Cabot will be filing motions with the Court to set the verdict aside based upon lack of evidence as well as conduct of plaintiff\u2019s counsel calculated to deprive Cabot of a fair trial.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY STACI WILSON A federal jury awarded two Dimock families over $4 million in damages after finding Cabot Oil & Gas Co. was negligent in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nDimock water case: Jury awards millions to families - PS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dimock water case: Jury awards millions to families - PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY STACI WILSON A federal jury awarded two Dimock families over $4 million in damages after finding Cabot Oil & Gas Co. was negligent in...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-10T21:51:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-18T19:25:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WGSI_Dimo_Ely3-1024x682.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tpennysaver\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/\",\"name\":\"Dimock water case: Jury awards millions to families - PS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WGSI_Dimo_Ely3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-10T21:51:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-18T19:25:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/75c26bc8e32869a516360463d23964c5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/2016\/03\/10\/dimock-water-case-jury-awards-millions-to-families\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WGSI_Dimo_Ely3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/psowegomedia.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/WGSI_Dimo_Ely3.jpg\",\"width\":5184,\"height\":3456,\"caption\":\"Monica Marta-Ely with husband N. Scott Ely and attorney Leslie Lewis react Thursday after an eight-member jury found Cabot Oil & Gas was negligent in the drilling of wells nears their Dimock Twp. home. The jury awardd a total of $4.24M to the Ely and Hubert families who the the suit against the company. Cabot plans to appeal the verdict. 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