Petition For A Writ of Certiorari, Like v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., No. - (U.S. Mar. 13, 2019)

No.
_________
================================================================
In The
Supreme Court of the United States
------------------------------------------------------------------
LYNDA LIKE, et al.,

Petitioners,
v.
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE
LINE COMPANY, LLC,
Respondent.
------------------------------------------------------------------
On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari

To The United States Court Of Appeals
For The Third Circuit
------------------------------------------------------------------
PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

------------------------------------------------------------------
JEREMY HOPKINS DANA BERLINER

CRANFILL SUMNER & ROBERT MCNAMARA*
HARTZOG LLP SAMUEL GEDGE
5420 Wade Park Blvd., INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
Ste. 300 901 North Glebe Rd.
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CAROLYN ELEFANT
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CAROLYN ELEFANT
8th Floor MICHAEL N. ONUFRAK,
1440 G St. N.W. SIOBHAN K. COLE
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1650 Market St., Ste. 1800
Philadelphia, PA 19103
* Counsel of Record
Counsel for Petitioners
================================================================
COCKLE LEGAL BRIEFS (800) 225-6964
WWW.COCKLELEGALBRIEFS.COM
i
QUESTION PRESENTED
The Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. § 717f(h)) dele-

gates to certain private companies the ordinary emi-
nent domain power: that is, the power to bring a
condemnation lawsuit and then buy land at an adjudi-
cated price after final judgment. The Act does not del-
egate the separate power to take immediate possession
of land.
Notwithstanding the Act’s limited delegation, are
district courts empowered to enter preliminary injunc-
tions giving private companies immediate possession
of land before final judgment in Natural Gas Act con-
demnations?
ii
PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDINGS BELOW

AND RULE 29.6 STATEMENT
The opinion below consolidated four separate

appeals, case numbers 17-3075, 17-3076, 17-3115, and
17-3116.
In case number 17-3075, Petitioners Hilltop Hol-
low Limited Partnership and Hilltop Hollow Partner-
ship, LLC were appellants; the full caption was
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC v.
Permanent Easements for 2.14 Acres and Temporary
Easements for 3.59 Acres in Conestoga Township,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Tax Parcel Number
1201606900000; Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership;
Hilltop Hollow Partnership LLC General Partner Of
Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership; Lancaster Farm-
land Trust; All Unknown Owners.
In case number 17-3076, Petitioner Stephen D.
Hoffman was the appellant; the full caption was Trans-
continental Gas Pipeline Company, LLC v. Permanent
Easement for 2.02 Acres and Temporary Easements for
2.76 Acres in Manor Township, Lancaster County Penn-
sylvania, Tax Parcel Number 4100300500000, 3049
Safe Harbor Road, Manor Township, Lancaster, Pa;
Stephen D. Hoffman; and All Unknown Owners.
In case number 17-3115, Petitioner Lynda Like
was the appellant; the full caption was Transcontinen-
tal Gas Pipeline Company, LLC v. Permanent Ease-
ment for 1.33 Acres and Temporary Easements for
2.28 Acres Conestoga Township, Lancaster County,
iii

AND RULE 29.6 STATEMENT – Continued
Pennsylvania Tax Parcel Number 1202476100000,

4160 Main Street Conestoga, PA, 17516; Lynda Like,
also known as Linda Like, and All Unknown Defend-
ants.
In case number 17-3116, appellants were Blair B.
Mohn and Megan E. Mohn, who do not join in this pe-
tition, and the full caption was Transcontinental Gas
Pipeline Company, LLC v. Permanent Easement for
0.94 Acres and Temporary Easements for 1.61 Acres in
Conestoga Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
Tax Parcel Number 1203589400000, Sickman Mill
Road; Blair B. Mohn; Megan E. Mohn, and All Un-
known Owners.
Petitioners Hoffman and Like are natural persons.
Petitioner Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership is a
Pennsylvania limited partnership whose general part-
ner is Petitioner Hilltop Hollow Partnership, LLC.
Hilltop Hollow Partnership, LLC, has no parent corpo-
rations and no publicly held company owns 10% or
more of its stock.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
QUESTION PRESENTED................................... i
AND RULE 29.6 STATEMENT ....................... ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................... iv
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................. vii
PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI ....... 1
OPINIONS BELOW............................................. 1
JURISDICTION ................................................... 1
STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED ........... 1
STATEMENT ....................................................... 2
A. Background ................................................ 5
B. Proceedings Below ..................................... 8
REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION .... 11
I. The decision below deviates sharply from
this Court’s precedents governing the use
of eminent domain and equitable relief .... 11
II. Of the seven courts of appeals to address
this question, only the Seventh Circuit
has adopted an approach consistent with
this Court’s precedents .............................. 19
III. The question presented is important ........ 24
IV. This case is a good vehicle for deciding the
question presented .................................... 27
CONCLUSION..................................................... 31
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued

Page
APPENDIX
Opinion, in the United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit (October 30, 2018) ........... App. 1
Memorandum Opinion, in the United States Dis-
trict Court for the Eastern District of Pennsyl-
vania (Nos. 17-cv-715, 17-cv-720, 17-cv-722,
17-cv-723, 17-cv-1725, August 23, 2017) ........ App. 33
Order Granting Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction for Possession of
Rights of Way, in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(No. 17-cv-715, August 23, 2017) ................... App. 61
(No. 17-cv-720, August 23, 2017) ................... App. 66
(No. 17-cv-722, August 23, 2017) ................... App. 71
(No. 17-cv-723, August 23, 2017) ................... App. 76
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued

Page
Opinion Denying Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion
for Preliminary Injunction, in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania (Nos. 17-cv-715, 17-cv-723,
April 6, 2017) .................................................. App. 81
Order Denying Appellants’ Petition for Rehear-
ing En Banc, in the United States Court of Ap-
peals for the Third Circuit (December 13,
2018) ............................................................... App. 99
Verified Complaint in Condemnation of Property
Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 71.1, in the United
States District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania (February 15, 2017) ............ App. 101
vii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page
CASES
Adorers of the Blood of Christ v. FERC, 897 F.3d
187 (3d Cir. 2018) ......................................................7
All. Pipeline L.P. v. 4.360 Acres, 746 F.3d 362
(8th Cir. 2014)..........................................................22
Cherokee Nation v. S. Kan. Ry. Co., 135 U.S. 641
(1890) .......................................................................26
Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271 (1939) ..... 12, 21
De Beers Consol. Mines, Ltd. v. United States,
325 U.S. 212 (1945) .................................................15
Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994) ..............17
E. Tenn. Natural Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808
(4th Cir. 2004).............................................. 21, 23, 24
Fondren v. Comm’r, 324 U.S. 18 (1945) ......................18
Grupo Mexicano de Desarrollo v. Alliance Bond
Fund, 527 U.S. 308 (1999) ............................... passim
In re Brunson, 498 B.R. 160 (Bankr. W.D. Tex.
2013) ........................................................................18
Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States,
136 S. Ct. 1969 (2016) .............................................29
Kirby Forest Indus., Inc. v. United States, 467
U.S. 1 (1984) ............................................ 3, 11, 12, 26
Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp.,
458 U.S. 419 (1982) .................................................17
Maritimes & Ne. Pipeline, LLC v. Decoulos, 146
Fed. Appx. 495 (1st Cir. 2005) ...................................7
viii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES – Continued

Page
N. Border Pipeline Co. v. 86.72 Acres, 144 F.3d
469 (7th Cir. 1998) ........................... 10, 20, 21, 23, 24
N. Nat. Gas Co. v. L.D. Drilling, Inc., 759 F. Supp.
2d 1282 (D. Kan. 2010) ............................................22
Nexus Gas Transmission, LLC v. City of Green,
No. 18-3325, ___ Fed. Appx. ___, 2018 WL
6437431 (6th Cir. Dec. 7, 2018) ...............................22
Spire STL Pipeline LLC v. 3.31 Acres of Land,
No. 18-cv-1327, 2018 WL 6528667 (E.D. Mo.
Dec. 12, 2018) ..........................................................22
Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co. v. 104 Acres of Land, 828
F. Supp. 123 (D.R.I. 1993) .......................................16
Transcon. Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC, v. 6.04 Acres,
910 F.3d 1130 (11th Cir. 2018) .......................... 22, 24
Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. 17.19 Acres, 550
F.3d 770 (9th Cir. 2008) ...........................................22
United States v. 122.00 Acres, 856 F.2d 56 (8th
Cir. 1988) .................................................................16
United States v. 4,970 Acres, 130 F.3d 712 (5th
Cir. 1997) .................................................................15
United States v. Carmack, 329 U.S. 230 (1946) .........13
United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, 138 S. Ct. 1532
(2018) .......................................................................29
Van Scyoc v. Equitrans, L.P., 255 F. Supp. 3d
636 (W.D. Pa. 2015) .................................................12
Vector Pipeline, L.P. v. 68.55 Acres of Land, 157
F. Supp. 2d 949 (N.D. Ill. 2001) ...............................22
ix
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES – Continued

Page
CODES AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS
15 U.S.C. § 717f(c)(1)(A) ...............................................7
15 U.S.C. § 717f(h) .................................... 1, 4, 7, 22, 23
15 U.S.C. § 717r(b) ........................................................7
28 U.S.C. § 1254 ............................................................1
40 U.S.C. § 3114 ...................................................... 3, 12
40 U.S.C. § 3114(b) .................................................. 3, 26
42 U.S.C. § 4651(4) ......................................................26
OTHER AUTHORITIES
Letter from Michael Dunn, Executive Vice
President and Chief Operating Officer, The
Williams Companies, to Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (August 24, 2018),
https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/Open
Nat.asp?fileID=15003167 (last visited March 8,
2019) .............................................................................. 9
Office of Inspector General, Department of
Energy, Audit Report: The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission’s Natural Gas
Certification Process (May 24, 2018), https://
www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/05/f52/
DOE-OIG-18-33.pdf (last visited March 8,
2019) ........................................................................24
1
PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

Petitioners respectfully petition for a writ of certi-
orari to review the judgment of the United States
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
------------------------------------------------------------------
OPINIONS BELOW
The opinion of the Third Circuit is reported at 907
F.3d 725 and reproduced at App. 1. The district court’s
memorandum opinion and orders granting prelimi-
nary injunctions are unreported and reproduced at
App. 33–80.
------------------------------------------------------------------
JURISDICTION
The opinion of the Third Circuit was filed on Octo-
ber 30, 2018. App. 1. On December 13, 2018, the Third
Circuit denied a timely filed petition for rehearing and
rehearing en banc. App. 99. This Court’s jurisdiction
rests on 28 U.S.C. § 1254.
------------------------------------------------------------------
STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED

Respondent’s asserted authority to condemn peti-
tioners’ property stems from the Natural Gas Act, 15
U.S.C. § 717f(h), which provides:
When any holder of a certificate of public
convenience and necessity cannot acquire by
2
contract, or is unable to agree with the owner

of property to the compensation to be paid for,
the necessary right-of-way to construct, oper-
ate, and maintain a pipe line or pipe lines for
the transportation of natural gas, and the nec-
essary land or other property, in addition to
right-of-way, for the location of compressor
stations, pressure apparatus, or other stations
or equipment necessary to the proper opera-
tion of such pipe line or pipe lines, it may ac-
quire the same by the exercise of the right of
eminent domain in the district court of the
United States for the district in which such
property may be located, or in the State
courts. The practice and procedure in any ac-
tion or proceeding for that purpose in the dis-
trict court of the United States shall conform
as nearly as may be with the practice and pro-
cedure in similar action or proceeding in the
courts of the State where the property is situ-
ated: Provided, That the United States dis-
trict courts shall only have jurisdiction of
cases when the amount claimed by the owner
of the property to be condemned exceeds
$3,000.
------------------------------------------------------------------
STATEMENT
Respondent Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Com-
pany filed this condemnation action in early 2017 and
a few months later was granted a preliminary in-
junction giving it immediate possession of large
swaths of petitioners’ land in rural Lancaster County.
3
Transcontinental sent work crews to take over peti-

tioners’ land and, in the ensuing year and a half, the
company has completed construction of the pipeline
that necessitated the condemnation actions in the first
place. Meanwhile, because the underlying lawsuits
have not reached final judgment, none of the petition-
ers has received any compensation whatsoever.
This take-first-pay-later structure is unusual in
federal condemnations. Ordinarily, a property owner is
compensated at the moment her property is taken
away: In a normal eminent domain case (what this Court
has called a straight-condemnation action), a court de-
termines the value of the property a condemnor wishes
to acquire and, after judgment, the condemnor has the
option to either purchase the property at the adjudi-
cated price or move to dismiss the condemnation. “The
practical effect of final judgment on the issue of just
compensation,” in other words, “is to give the Govern-
ment an option to buy the property at the adjudicated
price.” Kirby Forest Indus., Inc. v. United States, 467
U.S. 1, 4 (1984). And while the federal Government has
the separate power to take immediate possession of
land under the Declaration of Taking Act, 40 U.S.C.
§ 3114, that mechanism also pairs possession with pay-
ment. Like in straight-condemnation actions, an agency
proceeding under the Declaration of Taking Act must
pay landowners compensation (or an estimate thereof )
before entering onto land. 40 U.S.C. § 3114(b).
Here, though, petitioners face the worst of both
worlds. Transcontinental, as a private actor, has
been delegated less power than the usual federal
4
condemnor. But, paradoxically, companies like Trans-

continental exercise a power that is far more severe
than anything Congress has authorized for anyone:
the power to take land now but delay the owner’s
compensation for months or years after the fact. The
Natural Gas Act, which delegates the power of emi-
nent domain to certain private companies like Trans-
continental, delegates only the authority to bring
straight-condemnation actions, not the power to take
immediate possession. 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h). Lacking
the statutory power to take immediate possession,
Transcontinental instead harnessed the equitable
power of the federal courts. Notwithstanding this
Court’s well-established rule that equitable remedies
like preliminary injunctions may not be invoked to
rearrange parties’ substantive rights, the company
sought and obtained a preliminary injunction granting
it immediate possession of petitioners’ land. At the
same time, petitioners were not entitled to (and still
have not received) any compensation. The upshot is
that, even though Transcontinental has been dele-
gated less power than the typical federal condemnor,
it has been allowed to exercise more—and to leave
property owners in a worse position—than if Congress
had delegated the power of immediate possession in
the first place.
While this situation is unusual in the context of
the federal power of eminent domain, it is all too com-
mon in the context of condemnations under the Natu-
ral Gas Act. In that sense, petitioners are far from
alone: District courts across the country have entered
5
similar preliminary injunctions in Natural Gas Act

condemnations as a matter of course. Like Transconti-
nental, pipeline companies thereby secure immediate
possession of private property without congressional
approval while landowners wait months or years for
any compensation. Indeed, preliminary injunctions in
Natural Gas Act cases are very much the rule rather
than the exception—they are requested and granted in
such condemnations routinely, which means district
courts have entered hundreds of these injunctions,
transferring the rights to thousands of acres of land
without a final judgment or contemporaneous payment
of compensation.
Congress could, of course, authorize this state of
affairs if it so chose. But it has not. In fact, when Con-
gress actually authorizes condemnors to take immedi-
ate possession of land, it routinely insists that property
owners be paid for their loss immediately. In short, in
the absence of congressional authorization to grant im-
mediate possession of land, the district courts have in-
stead fashioned a substitute harsher than anything
contemplated by the legislature. This Court should
grant review to determine whether district courts are
empowered to rearrange property rights among pri-
vate parties in this manner.
A. Background
1. Petitioners are rural Lancaster County land-
owners who have carved out homes for themselves in
what they consider one of the most beautiful places in
6
America. Gary Erb, who owns his home through Peti-

tioner Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership, described
his joy at having moved into his “dream property”—a
rural home where he and his three sons can hunt deer
and where the boys, as they get older, will be able to
build homes of their own to stay close to family. C.A.
App. A01069–A01072 (Tr. Evid. Hrg. (July 20, 2017)).
Petitioner Stephen Hoffman is a professional forester
who with his wife Dorothea has lived in a carefully se-
lected woodland retreat for over a decade. Id. at
A01109–A01111. And Petitioner Lynda Like inherited
acreage of farmland from her father in 1993, having
promised him that she would preserve it for her family
and allow her sons to build homes there when they
eventually reached adulthood. Id. at A01185, A01190.
Petitioners’ rural paradises have been disrupted
by the eminent domain action at the heart of this case,
which has brought noise, construction crews, equip-
ment, and permanent disruption to their land and
lives. That much is not unusual; eminent domain fre-
quently means disruption for rural landowners as local
or state governments build roads or schools or high-
ways. But petitioners have not been condemned for a
road or a school or a highway; they have been con-
demned for the construction of a private natural-gas
pipeline. As a result, this condemnation is governed by
the Natural Gas Act—which, as discussed below, has
had dramatic consequences for petitioners’ substan-
tive property rights.
2. Under the Natural Gas Act, it is unlawful
to build a facility (including a pipeline) for the
7
transmission of natural gas without first obtaining a

certificate of public convenience and necessity issued
by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC). 15 U.S.C. § 717f(c)(1)(A). Any such certificate
automatically carries with it the power to take any
necessary property that cannot be voluntarily acquired
by initiating an eminent domain proceeding in state or
federal court. 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h).
Because the power of eminent domain flows auto-
matically from the issuance of the FERC certificate,
eminent domain actions under the Natural Gas Act
proceed somewhat differently from other eminent do-
main actions. While property owners are ordinarily en-
titled to raise any and all defenses challenging a
condemnor’s right to take their land, courts have con-
sistently held that property owners who want to con-
test a company’s right to exercise eminent domain
under the Natural Gas Act can do so only by directly
appealing FERC’s initial grant of the underlying cer-
tificate. See 15 U.S.C. § 717r(b) (providing for direct ap-
peal to D.C. Circuit or the Circuit in which the project
is located). Courts have uniformly held that they lack
jurisdiction to hear objections to a taking outside the
context of a direct appeal of the certificate, including in
a condemnation action itself. See, e.g., Adorers of the
Blood of Christ v. FERC, 897 F.3d 187, 194–95 (3d Cir.
2018) (no jurisdiction to hear Religious Freedom Res-
toration Act challenge to pipeline condemnation); ac-
cord Maritimes & Ne. Pipeline, LLC v. Decoulos, 146
Fed. Appx. 495, 498 (1st Cir. 2005) (“Once a [certificate]
is issued by the FERC, and the gas company is unable
8
to acquire the needed land by contract or agreement

with the owner, the only issue before the district court
in the ensuing eminent domain proceeding is the
amount to be paid to the property owner as just com-
pensation for the taking.”). In other words, once a
FERC-certified pipeline company files a condemnation
action, its legal authority to maintain that action is, as
far as the district court is concerned, effectively beyond
question.
Respondent Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Com-
pany holds a certificate from FERC authorizing the
construction of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline Project, a
natural-gas pipeline that runs through five States, in-
cluding ten counties in Pennsylvania. The route runs
directly through petitioners’ rural Lancaster County
homesteads. Petitioners did not want a pipeline run-
ning across their land or near their homes, and they
declined Transcontinental’s offer to purchase ease-
ments across their land, believing that the offer would
not compensate them for the business losses, inconven-
ience, and permanent displacements that would come
along with the pipeline. Condemnation followed.
B. Proceedings Below
Transcontinental filed the three1 substantially
identical condemnation actions that give rise to this
1
A fourth condemnation action—against landowners Blair
and Megan Mohn—was decided alongside these three in the con-
solidated appeals resolved by the Third Circuit in the opinion
9
petition in early 2017, seeking to condemn both perma-

nent easements for the pipeline as well as broader tem-
porary easements to allow for the construction of the
pipeline. E.g., App. 103–05, 118. That summer, the
district court granted a motion for partial summary
judgment, finding that the company possessed the
necessary certification from FERC and was therefore
legally authorized to condemn the properties at issue.
App. 40–41. Simultaneously, the court issued prelimi-
nary injunctions, granting the company immediate
possession of the rights of way while the underlying
condemnation litigation continued. App. 53. While the
company was required to post a bond to ensure even-
tual payment of just compensation, the landowners
were not entitled to (and, to date, have not received)
any compensation. See App. 60.2
The landowners appealed, arguing that the pre-
liminary injunctions were invalid as a matter of law
because the Natural Gas Act delegates to companies
like Transcontinental only the ordinary power of emi-
nent domain—not the more drastic power to take im-
mediate possession of property. They contended that,
below. The Mohns, however, have moved away from Lancaster

County and do not join in this petition.
2
In the meantime, respondent has taken full possession of
the required easements and, as it reported to FERC last August,
essentially completed construction of the pipeline. See Letter from
Michael Dunn, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Of-
ficer, The Williams Companies, to Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (August 24, 2018), https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/
common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=15003167 (last visited March 8,
2019).
10
as the Seventh Circuit held in Northern Border Pipe-

line Co. v. 86.72 Acres of Land, 144 F.3d 469 (7th Cir.
1998) (Northern Border), a preliminary injunction
would be appropriate only where a condemnor could
show a “preexisting entitlement to the property” rather
than only the future entitlement to the property that
would be created at the end of the condemnation ac-
tion. Id. at 472; see also App. 22–23.
The Third Circuit rejected these arguments and
upheld the injunctions. App. 22–23. The panel held
that the district court’s grant of a motion for partial
summary judgment determining Transcontinental’s
right to bring the condemnation action had established
the sort of preexisting entitlement to the land contem-
plated by the Seventh Circuit in Northern Border. App.
22–23. Given that determination, the only question
was what the district court had called “ ‘the timing of
the possession.’ ” App. 14. And an order that merely
“hastened” Transcontinental’s possession of petition-
ers’ land, the Third Circuit concluded, involved only
the sort of non-substantive right that could appropri-
ately be rearranged by means of preliminary injunc-
tive relief. App. 20–21.
The Third Circuit denied panel rehearing and re-
hearing en banc. App. 99–100. The condemnation cases
remain pending in the district court, and the prelimi-
nary injunctions remain in effect.
------------------------------------------------------------------
11
REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION

I. The decision below deviates sharply from
this Court’s precedents governing the use
of eminent domain and equitable relief.
The approach endorsed by the Third Circuit below
diverges from this Court’s precedent. Longstanding
precedent establishes three basic principles that gov-
ern this case, all of which work together to forbid a dis-
trict court from entering a preliminary injunction that
transfers private property from one private owner to
another under the Natural Gas Act. Put briefly, this
Court has said (1) that there is a difference between
the ordinary power of eminent domain and the power
to take immediate possession of property, (2) that pri-
vate entities exercising delegated eminent domain
power must be strictly limited to the powers actually
granted, and (3) that, in the absence of statutory au-
thorization, the federal courts’ equitable powers do not
extend to rearranging rights to use unencumbered
property before a final judgment is entered. The deci-
sion below contravenes these principles.
1. This Court has repeatedly explained that
the ordinary power of eminent domain is distinct
from the power to take immediate possession of prop-
erty. As described in Kirby Forest Industries v. United
States, there are four methods by which the United
States can exercise its sovereign power to acquire
land involuntarily. 467 U.S. 1, 3–5 (1984). In the first,
“so-called ‘straight condemnation[,]’ ” the Government
initiates condemnation proceedings in a district court,
followed by a trial to determine the appropriate just
12
compensation for the property interest being taken. Id.

at 3–4. “The practical effect of final judgment on the
issue of just compensation is to give the Government
an option to buy the property at the adjudicated price.”
Id. at 4 (citing Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271,
284 (1939)). “If the Government wishes to exercise that
option, it tenders payment to the private owner, where-
upon title and right to possession vest in the United
States.” Id. If not, the Government is entitled to move
for dismissal of the condemnation action. Id.
If the Government wishes to acquire land without
waiting for final judgment, though, it has other op-
tions: It can, when authorized, proceed under a statute
allowing it to immediately take “title and right to pos-
session” to property. Id. at 4–5; see also 40 U.S.C.
§ 3114. Alternatively, Congress may directly appropri-
ate land through specific legislation. Kirby Forest, 467
U.S. at 5. Or the executive may acquire land “summar-
ily, by physically entering into possession and ousting
the owner,” who then has a right to bring a suit for in-
verse condemnation to recover just compensation. Id.
There is no dispute in this case that the Natural Gas
Act gives Transcontinental only the “standard” kind of
eminent domain power—the power to initiate a
straight-condemnation case and buy land after judg-
ment—and not any of the others. See App. 18; cf. Van
Scyoc v. Equitrans, L.P., 255 F. Supp. 3d 636, 639–42
(W.D. Pa. 2015) (collecting district-court cases holding
that the Natural Gas Act does not preempt state-law
trespass actions or authorize certificate holders to
13
invade private property outside the confines of a

straight-condemnation action).
2. The limited language of the Natural Gas Act
matters because delegations of the eminent domain
power to private parties must be read narrowly. When
a statute uses “broad language . . . to authorize officials
to exercise the sovereign’s power of eminent domain on
behalf of the sovereign itself,” such an “authorization
. . . carries with it the sovereign’s full powers except
such as are excluded expressly or by necessary impli-
cation.” United States v. Carmack, 329 U.S. 230, 243
n.13 (1946). But things are very different when it
comes to “statutes which grant to others, such as public
utilities, a right to exercise the power of eminent do-
main on behalf of themselves.” Id. “These are, in their
very nature, grants of limited powers” and thus “do not
include sovereign powers greater than those expressed
or necessarily implied[.]” Id.
This principle is nowhere to be found in the opin-
ion below. To the contrary, the opinion below presumes
that a grant of immediate possession to a private con-
demnor is appropriate unless Congress specifically in-
tended to forbid such grants when it crafted the
delegation of power in the Natural Gas Act. App. 16–
17 (“Put another way, did Congress intend to forbid im-
mediate access to the necessary rights of way when it
granted only standard condemnation powers to natu-
ral gas companies?”). This is the wrong inquiry:
As made clear by the discussion in Carmack, the ques-
tion is whether the Natural Gas Act, expressly or by
necessary implication, grants a certificate-holder like
14
Transcontinental the power to take immediate posses-

sion of land prior to final judgment in its condemnation
action. And, as the court below expressly acknowl-
edged, the statute does no such thing. App. 5.
3. Finally, specific statutory authorization for
immediate possession is necessary here because this
Court has already held that federal courts cannot use
their equitable powers to deprive people of the use of
their unencumbered property before a final judgment
is entered. This Court’s decision in Grupo Mexicano
de Desarrollo v. Alliance Bond Fund illustrates the
point. 527 U.S. 308 (1999). There, plaintiff creditors
brought a breach-of-contract suit against a holding
company that owed them substantial unsecured debts.
Id. at 312–13. Finding that the defendant was on the
brink of insolvency and in the process of dissipating its
valuable assets in a way that would “frustrate any
judgment” the plaintiff might win, the district court
entered a preliminary injunction preventing the
defendant from further transferring the rights to
the assets in question. Id. (internal quotation marks
omitted).
This Court reversed. Reasoning that federal
courts’ equitable powers remain limited to those “tra-
ditionally accorded by courts of equity,” id. at 319, the
Court held that courts had historically rejected the no-
tion that equity could interfere with debtors’ rights to
their property before a creditor had obtained a final
judgment against them. Id. at 319–23. Because there
was no traditional power to grant such a preliminary
injunction at equity, the wisdom of such an injunction
15
was beyond the purview of the courts: The ability to

authorize (and the wisdom of authorizing) such a rem-
edy rested solely with Congress. Id. at 332–33. Grupo
Mexicano and the cases on which it relies stand for the
basic proposition that a preliminary injunction is ap-
propriate to the extent it “ ‘grant[s] intermediate relief
of the same character as that which may be granted
finally,’ ” but not to the extent it creates new substan-
tive rights. Id. at 326–27 (quoting De Beers Consol.
Mines, Ltd. v. United States, 325 U.S. 212, 220 (1945)).
The Third Circuit’s opinion here breaks with this
principle in two important ways: First, it authorized
preliminary injunctions that are different in character
from the final relief that could be entered at the end of
the litigation. Second, those injunctions worked to al-
ter the substantive rights of the parties.
The preliminary injunctions here are different in
character from the final relief available to a condem-
nor. Straight condemnations, after all, do not result in
an injunction giving the condemnor ownership of the
land. As noted above, the effect of final judgment in a
condemnation action is to give the condemnor an op-
tion to purchase the condemned property at the adju-
dicated price. Supra pp. 11-12. The condemnor is not
required to exercise this option, and a properly drafted
final judgment in a condemnation action reflects this
fact. See, e.g., Order, United States v. Tract H05-08, No.
2:04-cv-04 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 19, 2005) (ECF No. 21)
(providing that “[o]n the date of deposit of the Just
Compensation . . . title to the Property will vest in the
Plaintiff . . . .”); see also United States v. 4,970 Acres,
16
130 F.3d 712, 715 (5th Cir. 1997) (applying “the long
standing rule that the government has an option to
move for dismissal after a final condemnation judg-
ment”); United States v. 122.00 Acres, 856 F.2d 56,
57 (8th Cir. 1988) (“Ultimately, the United States de-
termined that the jury award was beyond its budget
capabilities; it chose to abandon the condemnation
and move for dismissal of the action.”). And, like any
other condemnor, pipeline companies sometimes
change their minds and elect not to purchase land
they initially sought to condemn. See, e.g., Tenn. Gas
Pipeline Co. v. 104 Acres of Land, 828 F. Supp. 123, 125
(D.R.I. 1993) (noting voluntary dismissal of condem-
nation action after change in pipeline route). The pre-
liminary injunctions entered below, however, do not
take the form of an option to purchase petitioners’
land. Instead, they oust petitioners immediately upon
the payment of a preliminary-injunction bond, giving
Transcontinental the immediate right to use the land
and enjoining petitioners from interfering with
Trancontinental’s possession. E.g., App. 64–65.
Even if the preliminary injunctions here were ex-
actly the same as the final judgment in a condemna-
tion action, though, they would still run afoul of Grupo
Mexicano because they create new substantive rights.
An entitlement to possess land now is substantively
different from an entitlement to possess land in the fu-
ture. The Third Circuit rejects this distinction and jus-
tifies the preliminary injunction on the grounds that it
does not alter the parties’ substantive rights at all:
17
Since Transcontinental’s substantive right to condemn

was unquestioned, the court reasoned, the preliminary
injunction affected only the procedural question of
when the property changed hands. App. 20–21. But
this cannot be correct: Prior to the entry of the prelim-
inary injunctions, petitioners had the right to exclude
Transcontinental and its agents from their land. After
the entry of the preliminary injunctions, the company
had the right to exclude petitioners from the land. The
right to exclude is, as this Court has held time and
again, one of the most important substantive aspects
of property ownership. See Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512
U.S. 374, 384 (1994) (calling the “right to exclude oth-
ers . . . one of the most essential sticks in the bundle of
rights that are commonly characterized as property”
(citation and internal quotation marks omitted)); ac-
cord Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV Corp.,
458 U.S. 419, 435 (1982) (“The power to exclude has
traditionally been considered one of the most treas-
ured strands in an owner’s bundle of property rights.”).
To be sure, the property owners here were going to
lose the right to exclude Transcontinental from their
land eventually—or, at least, they would if the com-
pany chose to exercise its option to purchase the ease-
ments after final judgment. But the timing of property
rights makes a substantive difference. There is a sub-
stantive difference between a future interest in prop-
erty and a present interest in property, just as there is
a substantive difference between holding an option
contract to buy a piece of property and holding title to
the property itself. Indeed, much of the substantive law
18
of property—with its life estates, contingent remain-

ders, and springing executory interests—is primarily
about the timing of property ownership.
Simply put, injunctions that rearrange who can do
what with property (and when) are substantive in na-
ture. Indeed, the Court said just that in Grupo Mexi-
cano itself: “Even in the absence of historical support,
we would not be inclined to believe that it is merely a
question of procedure whether a person’s unencum-
bered assets can be frozen by general-creditor claim-
ants before their claims have been vindicated by
judgment.” 527 U.S. at 322–23 (emphasis added). In-
stead, “that question goes to the substantive rights of
all property owners.” Id. at 323 (emphasis added).3
The inescapable conclusion of Grupo Mexicano
and the cases it relies on is that district courts cannot
issue preliminary injunctions transferring unencum-
bered private property from one owner to another. A
remainderman would not be entitled to an order grant-
ing him immediate possession of a life estate, a holder
of an option contract to purchase land would not be en-
titled to an order granting immediate possession of
that land, and Transcontinental was not entitled to an
3
The Court’s reasoning in Grupo Mexicano is supported by
the fact that courts at all levels treat future interests in property
as substantively different from present interests. See, e.g.,
Fondren v. Commissioner, 324 U.S. 18, 20 (1945) (holding that
giving a future interest in property without “the right presently
to use, possess or enjoy the property” did not qualify as a gift un-
der relevant regulation); In re Brunson, 498 B.R. 160, 163 (Bankr.
W.D. Tex. 2013) (noting that state law’s homestead protection co-
vers present possessory interests but not future interests).
19
injunction here for precisely the same reason. Here,

as in Grupo Mexicano, respondent has a contingent
future right to petitioners’ property that it has not
yet distilled to a final judgment. Here, as in Grupo
Mexicano, a district court has invoked its equitable
jurisdiction to restrict the property owners’ substan-
tive rights to that property. And here, as in Grupo
Mexicano, such a remedy is inappropriate absent
congressional authorization.
II. Of the seven courts of appeals to address

this question, only the Seventh Circuit has
adopted an approach consistent with this
Court’s precedents.
The Seventh Circuit, faced with a request for a
preliminary injunction in a condemnation under the
Natural Gas Act, has articulated a rule that squares
perfectly with this Court’s precedents: Such an injunc-
tion is appropriate only to the extent a condemnor can
demonstrate a preexisting right to the land at issue, as
distinct from the contingent future right created by the
eminent domain action itself. Other circuit courts
adopting a contrary rule have attempted to distinguish
the Seventh Circuit’s decision, but their distinctions
are at odds with the plain text and reasoning of the
decision itself, as well as being contrary to this Court’s
precedents.
1. Unlike the Third Circuit below, the Seventh
Circuit has articulated an approach to the question
presented that follows this Court’s teachings exactly.
20
In Northern Border Pipeline Co. v. 86.72 Acres, 144 F.3d

469 (1998), the Seventh Circuit considered the same
question presented here. There, as here, a pipeline
company secured a FERC certificate authorizing the
use of eminent domain. Id. at 470. There, as here, the
company invoked that power by filing a series of ac-
tions under § 717f(h) of the Natural Gas Act. Id. at 471.
There, as here, the company sought “immediate pos-
session” of the land before entry of a final judgment
setting just compensation. Id. But there, unlike here,
the district court refused.
Affirming the district court’s denial of the pre-
liminary injunction, the Seventh Circuit held that
injunctive relief was unavailable as a matter of law.
Like the Third Circuit here, the Seventh Circuit
noted that “the Natural Gas Act does not create an
entitlement to immediate possession of the land.” Id.;
see also App. 5 (“The NGA . . . provides only for stand-
ard eminent domain power, not the type of eminent do-
main called ‘quick take’ that permits immediate
possession.”). Unlike the Third Circuit, however, the
Seventh Circuit held that the federal courts have no
equitable power to grant pipeline companies land in
which they have no vested right. The company might
well secure a “substantive entitlement” to the land “at
the conclusion of the normal eminent domain process,”
144 F.3d at 471—if, that is, the district court were to
establish a sale price for the land and if the company
were to elect to pay that price. But the prospect that
the company might exercise that as-yet-undetermined
option on an as-yet-unknown date does not translate
21
to “a substantive entitlement to the defendants’ land

right now.” Id. (emphasis in original).
In this way, the Seventh Circuit noted, an eminent
domain action under the Natural Gas Act differs from
the mine-run dispute where a preliminary injunction
might be available. Ordinarily, the plaintiff in a prop-
erty dispute “claim[s] an ownership interest in the
property that, if it existed at all, was fully vested even
before initiation of the lawsuit.” Id. at 472. A condem-
nation action under the Natural Gas Act, by contrast,
does not vindicate the pipeline company’s “preexisting
entitlement to the property.” Id. It serves a different
purpose entirely: It is “a means by which the sovereign
[or the sovereign’s delegatee] may find out what any
piece of property will cost.” Danforth v. United States,
308 U.S. 271, 284 (1939). That a pipeline company has
standing to bring such an action thus says nothing
about whether it will ultimately possess the land. See
id. For that reason, the Seventh Circuit affirmed, the
district court could not “exercise[ ] . . . equitable power
to enter a preliminary injunction ordering the defend-
ants to grant the company immediate possession.”
Northern Border 144 F.3d at 471.
2. The Third Circuit (following the Fourth Cir-
cuit) distinguished the Seventh Circuit’s approach on
the grounds that here, unlike in Northern Border, the
district court had granted a motion for partial sum-
mary judgment affirming the pipeline company’s legal
authority to maintain the condemnation action in the
first place. App. 21–22; see also E. Tenn. Natural Gas
Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 827 (4th Cir. 2004) (drawing
22
the same distinction). The Eighth and Ninth Circuits

have likewise ratified district courts’ power to grant
pipeline companies immediate possession of land. All.
Pipeline L.P. v. 4.360 Acres, 746 F.3d 362, 368 (8th Cir.
2014); Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. 17.19 Acres, 550
F.3d 770, 777 (9th Cir. 2008). And in the months since
the Third Circuit issued its decision here, the Sixth
and Eleventh Circuits have endorsed this view as well,
with little more than a nod to the weight of authority
elsewhere. Nexus Gas Transmission, LLC v. City of
Green, No. 18-3325 ___ Fed. Appx. ___, ___, 2018 WL
6437431, at *3 (6th Cir. Dec. 7, 2018); Transcon. Gas
Pipe Line Co., LLC v. 6.04 Acres, 910 F.3d 1130, 1152
(11th Cir. 2018).4
That distinction, while widely adopted, lacks merit.
It is true that the courts in Sage, in this case, and in
similar cases had entered orders confirming that the
pipeline companies had the “substantive right” to sue
under § 717f(h) (an exercise that demands little more
than verifying the fact that FERC has issued a certifi-
cate for the pipeline in question). Cf. App. 20 (“The only
substantive right at issue is the right to condemn us-
ing eminent domain[.]”). But the “substantive right” to
4
In addition to the courts of appeals, district courts—even
within the Seventh Circuit—nearly uniformly hold that they have
the power to grant immediate possession once they have granted
a motion for partial summary judgment for a pipeline company.
See, e.g., N. Natural Gas Co. v. L.D. Drilling, Inc., 759 F. Supp. 2d
1282, 1303 (D. Kan. 2010); Spire STL Pipeline LLC v. 3.31 Acres
of Land, No. 18-cv-1327, 2018 WL 6528667 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 12, 2018);
Vector Pipeline, L.P. v. 68.55 Acres of Land, 157 F. Supp. 2d 949,
951 (N.D. Ill. 2001).
23
file a condemnation action under § 717f(h) is simply

the standing to sue in the first place; it is not the same
as the “substantive entitlement” to the land that arises
“at the conclusion of the normal eminent domain pro-
cess” if and when compensation is adjudicated and
paid. See Northern Border, 144 F.3d at 471.
There was also no question that the company in
Northern Border had the same right to sue under
§ 717f(h). The Seventh Circuit said so explicitly:
“Northern Border has a substantive claim to property,
based on its eminent domain power under § 717f, that
is likely to prevail on the merits.” Id. at 471. “[N]o one,”
the court emphasized, “disputes the validity of the
FERC certificate conferring the eminent domain
power, nor could they do so in this proceeding.” Id. at
471–72. Nothing about those statements suggests that
a district court can convert the “entitlement that will
arise at the conclusion of the normal eminent domain
process” into a “preexisting entitlement to the prop-
erty” simply by granting a motion for partial summary
judgment on an issue that was not (and could not have
been) disputed in the case. Id.
Far from being “clearly distinguishable” (App. 23),
therefore, Northern Border resembles this case in
every material respect. Like Transcontinental—in-
deed, like every condemnor under the Natural Gas
Act—the Northern Border Pipeline Company undis-
putedly had “the right to condemn” land by invoking
the Natural Gas Act. Compare Northern Border, 144
F.3d at 471–72 with Sage, 361 F.3d at 827 and App. 20–
21. The only question is whether that right can be
24
parlayed into immediate possession of the defendants’

property. The majority view holds that it can; district
courts can grant “immediate possession through the is-
suance of a preliminary injunction” so long as they
have entered an order confirming the condemnor’s sub-
stantive right to maintain the condemnation action.
Sage, 361 F.3d at 828; see also, e.g., App. 20–21; Trans-
con. Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC, 910 F.3d at 1152. The Sev-
enth Circuit has held the opposite: District courts
“ha[ve] no authority to enter a preliminary injunction
awarding immediate possession.” Northern Border,
144 F.3d at 472. Because only the Seventh Circuit’s ap-
proach honors foundational constraints on the federal
courts’ equitable powers and this Court’s instructions
on proper interpretation of private delegations of the
eminent domain power, the petition for certiorari
should be granted.
III. The question presented is important.

The question presented is one of national im-
portance because the landowners in this case are
hardly alone. As the Inspector General of the Depart-
ment of Energy has noted, recent significant growth in
the natural-gas industry has dramatically increased
the number of and controversy over natural-gas pipe-
lines like the one in this case. See Office of Inspector
General, U.S. Department of Energy, Audit Report: The
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Natural Gas
Certification Process (May 24, 2018), https://www.
energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/05/f52/DOE-OIG-18-33.
pdf (last visited March 8, 2019). Under the majority
25
rule endorsed by the decision below, all of these con-

demnors will be entitled to take immediate possession
of private land by preliminary injunction.
And, if history is any guide, they will do exactly
that. Preliminary injunctions granting immediate pos-
session of property are not the exception in Natural
Gas Act condemnations. They are the rule. Over the
past 20 years, district courts have entered hundreds of
preliminary injunctions granting private companies
immediate possession of thousands of acres of private
land. In the last five years alone, district courts in
Pennsylvania (where this case arises) have issued at
least 38 separate preliminary injunctions in Natural
Gas Act cases, each of them transferring effective own-
ership of land to private companies to use for their
own purposes.5 As pipeline construction and related
condemnations continue, so too will preliminary in-
junctions granting pipeline companies immediate pos-
session of land.
These injunctions impose real hardships on prop-
erty owners, as illustrated by those suffered by the
property owners in this case. The district court granted
Transcontinental immediate possession of petitioners’
property on August 23, 2017. App. 35. Today, over 18
months later, the underlying condemnation actions are
still pending in the district court and petitioners have
therefore yet to receive a single dollar in compensation.
5
These numbers are drawn from a review of federal-court
records available on the Public Access to Court Electronic Records
system.
26
Allowing a condemnor to take land now means that

property owners suffer damages now—but can recover
only months or (as here) years later.
Congress, of course, is free to impose these hard-
ships on landowners if it wishes; this Court has held
that there is no constitutional requirement that just
compensation be paid contemporaneously with a tak-
ing. See Cherokee Nation v. S. Kan. Ry. Co., 135 U.S.
641, 659 (1890). But Congress has not authorized this
state of affairs. Indeed, Congress’s revealed preference
is (sensibly) to ensure that property owners are com-
pensated at the moment they lose their property. In a
straight condemnation, for example, “title and right to
possession vest in the United States” only after the
Government “tenders payment to the private owner.”
Kirby Forest Indus., 467 U.S. at 4. And when the Gov-
ernment exercises its power to take immediate posses-
sion, the Declaration of Taking Act requires immediate
payment of estimated compensation to the property
owners. See 40 U.S.C. § 3114(b). Congress has even an-
nounced, more broadly, that when the federal Govern-
ment is condemnor, payment should always precede
possession. See 42 U.S.C. § 4651(4) (“No owner shall be
required to surrender possession of real property be-
fore the head of the Federal agency concerned pays the
agreed purchase price, or deposits with the court in ac-
cordance with § 3114(a) to (d) of Title 40, for the benefit
of the owner, an amount not less than the agency’s ap-
proved appraisal of the fair market value of such prop-
erty, or the amount of the award of compensation in the
condemnation proceeding for such property.”).
27
In other words, by allowing pipeline companies

like Transcontinental to take immediate possession
via preliminary injunction, district courts have created
a system that is far harsher and far more burdensome
to property owners than any process actually author-
ized by Congress. It may be that there are good reasons
to abandon Congress’s preference for immediate com-
pensation when a private pipeline company rather
than a government agency is doing the taking. But
whatever those reasons might be, the decision to im-
pose these burdens on property owners rests “where
such issues belong in our democracy: in the Congress.”
Grupo Mexicano, 527 U.S. at 333.
IV. This case is a good vehicle for deciding the

question presented.
This case is a good vehicle for resolving the ques-
tion presented. Addressing the issue here does not
require consideration of any factual disputes or defer-
ence to trial-court decisionmaking—the parties briefed
this issue as a purely legal question, and the Third Cir-
cuit correctly reviewed the district court’s injunctions
de novo. App. 16. And, despite the fact that this case
involves the review of a preliminary injunction, it will
continue to present a live controversy even if the un-
derlying condemnation actions in the district court
reach final judgment while the case is pending before
this Court.
28
First, a final judgment in the condemnation action

will not resolve the question of whether the prelimi-
nary relief entered below was appropriate. As this
Court noted in Grupo Mexicano, the entry of final judg-
ment in favor of a plaintiff will usually moot the ques-
tion of whether that plaintiff ’s preliminary injunction
was properly granted because the final judgment “es-
tablishes that the defendant should not have been en-
gaging in the conduct that was enjoined.” 527 U.S. at
315 (emphasis in original). But where the petitioners’
claim is that the preliminary injunction wrongfully re-
strained lawful conduct (here, excluding Transconti-
nental from land that petitioners still owned and that
had not yet been condemned), “the substantive validity
of the final injunction does not establish the substan-
tive validity of the preliminary one.” Id. “If petitioners
are correct, they have been harmed by issuance of the
unauthorized preliminary injunction—and hence
should be able to recover on the bond—even if the final
injunction is proper.” Id. at 329 (emphases in original).
Even if Transcontinental litigates the condemnation
action to final judgment and elects to purchase the
easements at issue—and even if it were to do so after
this Court grants certiorari—that will have no effect
on whether it was entitled to obtain immediate posses-
sion prior to that final judgment.
Second, even if mootness were on the table, peti-
tioners’ claims would still be reviewable by this Court
because they would fall within the “exception to the
mootness doctrine for a ‘controversy that is capable
of repetition yet evading review.’ ” Kingdomware
29
Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1969,

1976 (2016) (citation omitted). That exception applies
where (1) “the challenged action is in its duration too
short to be fully litigated prior to cessation or expira-
tion” and (2) “there is a reasonable expectation that the
same complaining party will be subjected to the same
action again.” United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, 138
S. Ct. 1532, 1540 (2018). Both elements are met here:
The propriety of a preliminary injunction frequently
cannot be fully litigated before this Court if the en-
joined party’s claims would be mooted by a final judg-
ment in the district court. And petitioners are
reasonably likely to be subject to a Natural Gas Act
condemnation again—and, indeed, are likely to be con-
demned by Transcontinental or its successor-in-
interest. The complaints filed in the district court
sought two different easements: a narrower easement
for the pipeline itself and a broader “construction ease-
ment” for the land required for the construction phase
of the pipeline project. See, e.g., App. 103–05. And the
permanent easements requested in the complaints
below expressly seek the right to “alter[ ], repair[ ],
chang[e] the size of, replac[e] and remov[e]” the pipe-
line. App. 103. If, as seems inevitable, Transcontinental
needs to exercise its right to alter, repair, replace, or
remove its pipeline, it will need to condemn yet an-
other temporary construction easement. At that point,
petitioners will once again be subject to having their
land taken from them by preliminary injunction—un-
less this Court resolves the issue first.
* * *
30
This case presents an important question of prop-

erty law on which the courts of appeals—with one ex-
ception—have sharply deviated from this Court’s
precedents governing the use of eminent domain and
the crafting of equitable remedies. The petition for a
writ of certiorari should be granted to bring the prac-
tice of lower courts back in line with this Court’s prec-
edents, to resolve the disagreement among the lower
courts about the propriety of granting immediate pos-
session via preliminary injunction in these cases, and
to ensure that Congress, rather than the courts, re-
tains control over exactly how much of its eminent do-
main power it delegates to private condemnors like
respondent.
------------------------------------------------------------------
31
CONCLUSION
The petition for a writ of certiorari should be
granted.
Respectfully submitted,
JEREMY HOPKINS DANA BERLINER
CRANFILL SUMNER & ROBERT MCNAMARA*
HARTZOG LLP SAMUEL GEDGE
5420 Wade Park Blvd., INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
Ste. 300 901 North Glebe Rd.
Raleigh, NC 27607 Ste. 900
Arlington, VA 22203
CAROLYN ELEFANT
Tel: (703) 682-9320
LAW OFFICES OF
[email protected]
CAROLYN ELEFANT
8th Floor MICHAEL N. ONUFRAK,
1440 G St. N.W. SIOBHAN K. COLE
Washington, DC 20005 WHITE AND WILLIAMS LLP
1650 Market St., Ste. 1800
* Counsel of Record
Counsel for Petitioners
App. 1
PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nos. 17-3075, 17-3076, 17-3115 & 17-3116
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE
LINE COMPANY, LLC
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENTS FOR 2.14 ACRES AND
TEMPORARY EASEMENTS FOR 3.59 ACRES IN
CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL NUMBER
1201606900000; HILLTOP HOLLOW LIMITED
PARTNERSHIP; HILLTOP HOLLOW PARTNER-
SHIP LLC GENERAL PARTNER OF HILLTOP
HOLLOW LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; LANCASTER
FARMLAND TRUST; ALL UNKNOWN OWNERS
Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership and Hilltop
Hollow Partnership, LLC,
Appellants in 17-3075
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPELINE
COMPANY, LLC
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR 2.02 ACRES AND
MANOR TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER COUNTY
4100300500000, 3049 SAFE HARBOR ROAD,
App. 2
MANOR TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER, PA; STEPHEN

D. HOFFMAN; AND ALL UNKNOWN OWNERS
Stephen D. Hoffman,
Appellant in 17-3076
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY, LLC
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR 1.33 ACRES AND
TEMPORARY EASEMENTS FOR 2.28 ACRES
PENNSYLVANIA TAX PARCEL NUMBER
1202476100000, 4160 MAIN STREET CONESTOGA,
PA 17516; LYNDA LIKE, also known as Linda Like,
AND ALL UNKNOWN DEFENDANTS
Lynda Like,
Appellant in 17-3115
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPANY, LLC
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR 0.94 ACRES
AND TEMPORARY EASEMENTS FOR 1.61 ACRES
IN CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL NUM-
BER 1203589400000, SICKMAN MILL ROAD;
BLAIR B. MOHN; MEGAN E. MOHN, AND ALL
UNKNOWN OWNERS
Blair B. Mohn and Megan E. Mohn,
Appellants in 17-3116
App. 3
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On Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
(D. C. Civil Actions Nos. 17-cv-00715, 17-cv-00723,
17-cv-00720, 17-cv-00722)
District Judge: Honorable Jeffery L. Schmehl
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Submitted under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a)
on October 2, 2018
Before: SHWARTZ, ROTH and FISHER,
Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: October 30, 2018)
Siobhan K. Cole
White & Williams
1650 Market Street
One Liberty Place, Suite 1800
Jeremy P. Hopkins
Cranfill Summer & Hartzog
5420 Wade Park Boulevard Suite 300
Raleigh, NC 27607
Michael N. Onufrak
White & Williams
1650 Market Street
Suite 1800
Carolyn Elefant
Law Offices of Carolyn Elefant
8th Floor
1440 G Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
App. 4
Mark L. Freed
Curtin & Heefner
2005 South Easton Road
Suite 100
Doylestown, PA 18901
Counsel for Appellants
Patrick F. Nugent
Sean T. O’Neill
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr
1500 Market Street
Centre Square West, 38th Floor
Elizabeth U. Witmer
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr
1200 Liberty Ridge Drive
Suite 200
Wayne, PA 19087
Counsel for Appellees
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OPINION
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ROTH, Circuit Judge

Congress may grant eminent domain power to pri-
vate companies acting in the public interest. This ap-
peal requires us to determine the limits on Congress’s
grant of eminent domain power to private companies
building gas lines under the Natural Gas Act (NGA),
15 U.S.C. § 717f(h).
App. 5
The NGA gives natural gas companies the power

to acquire property by eminent domain, but it provides
only for standard eminent domain power, not the type
of eminent domain called “quick take” that permits im-
mediate possession.1 The District Court granted a pre-
liminary injunction to Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line
Company, which effectively gave the company immedi-
ate possession of certain rights of way owned by appel-
lant landowners. The landowners claim that granting
immediate possession violated the constitutional prin-
ciple of separation of powers because the taking of
property by eminent domain is a legislative power and
the NGA did not grant “quick take.” We disagree and
hold that the District Court’s order did not violate the
principle of separation of powers because Transconti-
nental properly sought and obtained the substantive
right to the property before seeking equitable relief. We
will therefore affirm.
I
Transcontinental is building a natural gas pipe-
line that runs through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. For this
project, named “Atlantic Sunrise Expansion Project,”
Transcontinental needed certain rights of way, includ-
ing those owned by appellants Hilltop Hollow Limited
Partnership, Stephen Hoffman, Lynda Like, and Blair
and Megan Mohn (collectively “Landowners”). Under
1
For a further description of “quick take” see Section III.A
infra.
App. 6
§ 717f(h) of the NGA, gas companies may acquire prop-

erty by eminent domain if they meet three require-
ments. A gas company must demonstrate, first, that it
holds a certificate of public convenience and necessity
from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC); second, that it was unable to acquire the right
of way through negotiation with the landowner; and
third, that the amount claimed by the owner of the
property exceeds $3,000. If these conditions are met,
the gas company may “acquire the [necessary right-of-
way] by the exercise of the right of eminent domain in
the district court.”2
Transcontinental has met all three requirements
of § 717f(h). The administrative review leading up to
the certificate of public convenience and necessity
lasted almost three years and, as is evident from the
record, included extensive outreach and many avenues
of public participation. The process started when
FERC granted the company’s request to use the pre-
filing process on April 4, 2014.3 On July 29, 2014,
FERC issued a Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environ-
mental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Planned Atlan-
tic Sunrise Expansion Project, Request for Comments
on Environmental Issues, and Notice of Public Scoping
Meetings (NOI).4 The NOI was then mailed to 2500
interested parties. It invited comment on the project’s
environmental issues from all levels of government,
2
§ 717f(h).
3
A1424.
4
A1424; 79 Fed. Reg. 44,023 (2014).
App. 7
interest groups, Native American tribes, affected prop-

erty owners, local media and libraries, and other inter-
ested parties. The Commission heard from 93 speakers
and received over 600 written comments.5 On March
31, 2015, the company filed its application to construct
and operate the Atlantic Sunrise project.6 FERC
mailed letters to potentially affected landowners (as
well as to government officials and other stakeholders)
on October 22, 2015.7 FERC issued the draft EIS on
May 5, 2016, and published it on May 12, 2016.8 At four
public meetings in June 2016, FERC heard from 203
speakers and received over 560 written comments and
900 identical letters on the draft EIS.9 Two alternative
pipeline routes were identified following the draft EIS,
and additional notices were mailed to potentially af-
fected stakeholders, in response to which FERC re-
ceived 25 additional comment letters.10 FERC issued
the final EIS on December 30, 2016, and published it
on January 9, 2017.11
The Commission issued a certificate of public con-
venience and necessity to Transcontinental—the first
requirement of § 717f(h) of the NGA—on February 3,
2017.12 It found “[b]ased on the benefits” of the
5
A1424.
6
A1425.
7
A1425.
8
81 Fed. Reg. 29,557 (2016).
9
A1425.
10
A1426.
11
A1426; 82 Fed. Reg. 2,344 (2017).
12
A1396.
App. 8
pipeline, “the minimal adverse effects on landowners

or surrounding communities,” and “the absence of ad-
verse effects on existing customers and other pipelines
and their captive customers, . . . that the public con-
venience and necessity require[d] approval” of the pro-
ject “subject to the conditions” set out in the Order
Issuing Certificate.13 Those conditions included re-
quirements that Transcontinental, inter alia, construct
the pipeline and make it available for service within
three years of the date of the order,14 comply with cer-
tain environmental conditions, and follow certain rate
schedules.15 FERC also required that Transcontinental
execute firm contracts for volumes and service terms
“equivalent to those in its precedent agreements” be-
fore construction.16 The Order Issuing Certificate con-
tained information on those binding precedent
agreements, comprising 100% of the capacity gener-
ated by the project, with nine shippers.17 The Land-
owners sought rehearing and included a request to
13
A1410.
14
See 18 C.F.R. § 157.20(b), A1466.
15
A1466-67.
16
A1467.
17
A1400-01, A1407-10. FERC noted that while “a number of
the project shippers are producers,” its “policy does not require
that shippers be end-use consumers of natural gas. . . . [A] project
driven primarily by marketers and producers does not render it
speculative. Marketers or producers who subscribe to firm capac-
ity on a proposed project on a long-term basis presumably have
made a positive assessment of the potential for selling gas to end-
use consumers in a given market and have made a business deci-
sion to subscribe to the capacity on the basis of that assessment.”
A1408.
App. 9
stay the Order Issuing Certificate and construction of

the project,18 but FERC tolled the rehearing request on
March 13, 2017,19 denied the stay requests on August
31, 2017,20 and finally denied the rehearing request on
December 6, 2017.21
The second and third requirements for using the
eminent domain powers under § 717f(h) of the NGA
are that the gas company negotiate with the land-
owner for the necessary right of way and that value of
the right of way exceeds $3000. Transcontinental ex-
tended written offers of compensation exceeding $3000
to each of the Landowners, but these offers were not
accepted.22 Transcontinental thus satisfied the second
18
Request for Rehearing and Motion for Stay of Certain
Landowners (Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5123; Peti-
tion for Rehearing of Lynda Like of Order Issuing Certificate for
the Atlantic Sunrise Project and Request for Stay of Certificate
(Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5204; Petition for Rehear-
ing of Follin Smith and Blair and Megan Mohn of Order Issuing
Certificate for the Atlantic Sunrise Project and Request for Stay
of Certificate (Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5202.
19
The tolling order noted that if FERC had not responded to
the rehearing requests within 30 days, the requests would be con-
sidered denied under 18 C.F.R. § 385.713 (2016); therefore, FERC
tolled the request “[i]n order to afford additional time for consid-
eration of the matters.” A669.
20
Order Denying Stay, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.,
LLC, 160 FERC ¶ 61,042 (Aug. 31, 2017), Accession No.
20170831-3088.
21
Order on Rehearing, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.,
LLC, 161 FERC ¶ 61,250 (Dec. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20171206-
3073.
22
Transcontinental submitted a declaration in its summary
judgment briefing from Aaron Blair, a “Senior Land Representative”
App. 10
and third requirements. The company filed condemna-

tion complaints pursuant to Rule 71.1 in four separate
actions against the Landowners on February 15,
2017.23
Having met the three requirements of § 717f(h),
Transcontinental moved for partial summary judg-
ment on February 20, 2017, in the Hilltop, Hoffman,
and Mohn condemnation actions and on February 22,
2017, in the Like condemnation action.24 Transconti-
nental also requested an injunction giving immediate
access for the purpose of conducting a survey in the
Hilltop and Hoffman actions and claimed immediate
entitlement based on the existence of the FERC or-
der.25 On April 6, 2017, the District Court denied the
motion for an injunction under the NGA because it had
not yet determined the merits of Transcontinental’s
condemnation action, though it granted Transconti-
nental limited survey access pursuant to Pennsylvania
state law.26 The court held that it would have been
premature to grant such an injunction at that time
given that the Landowners in related cases had not yet
for Transcontinental’s parent company, Williams Partners, L.P.,

establishing that it had made these offers, and there was also tes-
timony to that effect at the preliminary injunction hearing. A609
(Blair Declaration); A1049 (Blair testimony).
23
A130, A1537, A1709, A1832.
24
A130, A1538, A1833, A1709.
25
A679.
26
A679, A680.
App. 11
finished briefing the summary judgment motions.27

The court noted that if Transcontinental later estab-
lished its right to condemn, the court would be able to
use its equitable power to award preliminary injunc-
tive relief.28
After briefing on the summary judgment motions
concluded, Transcontinental filed an omnibus motion
for preliminary injunction on June 28, 2017.29 The
Landowners responded on July 14, 2017.30 On June 30,
2017, the District Court scheduled oral argument on
the motions for July 17 and 20, 2017. At oral argument,
a witness for Transcontinental testified that construc-
tion was planned to begin in the fall of 2017 and that
it would need access to the rights of way by August
18,31 or else it would suffer various harms.32 The Land-
owners cross-examined Transcontinental’s witness,33
and all four Landowners testified.34 The Landowners’
testimony included statements that they had all par-
ticipated in the FERC administrative process.35 Coun-
sel for Landowners presented argument that the
27
A680.
28
A679.
29
A685.
30
A135, A1541, A1712, A1835.
31
A953-54, A957.
32
A957-961.
33
A963.
34
A1068, A1110, A1152, A1184.
35
A1108 (Hilltop), A1124-25 (Hoffman), A1158-59 (Mohn),
A1191 (Like).
App. 12
taking constituted a “quick take” and that it violated

separation of powers principles.36
On August 23, 2017, the District Court granted
Transcontinental’s motions for partial summary
judgment and omnibus motion for a preliminary in-
junction.37 The court found no dispute that Transconti-
nental met the three requirements for seeking eminent
domain under the NGA and held that the company was
therefore entitled to the entry of partial summary
judgment.38 The court addressed the Hilltop/Hoffman
Landowners’ due process claims and ruled that they
were essentially attacks on the FERC certificate, and
were therefore outside the court’s jurisdiction.39 The
court added that, even if it were to exercise jurisdic-
tion, it would find that the Hilltop/ Hoffman Landown-
ers had received “adequate due process” because they
had participated in oral argument, had filed a request
for rehearing with FERC, and had filed an appeal in
the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.40 The Hilltop/Hoff-
man Landowners had also argued that FERC’s tolling
order deprived them of due process because it indefi-
nitely extended FERC’s time limit to rule on their Mo-
tion for Rehearing and Stay. The court rejected this
argument on the grounds that mere delay in the
36
A1202-10, A1214-16.
37
A35; A20-28, A75-82, A97-103, A114-21; A18-19, A73-74,
A95-96, A112-13.
38
A41-42.
39
A42.
40
A44.
App. 13
adjudication of a claim does not amount to a depriva-

tion.41 The court then addressed the Like/Mohn Land-
owners’ claim that because the FERC certificate was
conditioned on certain requirements, some of which
had not yet been met, the certificate could not be used
to exercise eminent domain. As the NGA does not re-
quire FERC certificate holders to satisfy all the certif-
icate’s conditions before exercising eminent domain,
and because the certificate itself contained no such re-
quirement, the District Court rejected this argument.42
On the basis of this review, the court held that
Transcontinental had met the four factor test for a pre-
liminary injunction. Under that test, the movant must
demonstrate: 1) that there is reasonable probability of
success on the merits, 2) that there will be irreparable
harm to the movant in the absence of relief, 3) that
granting the injunction will not result in greater harm
to the nonmoving party, and 4) that the public interest
favors granting the injunction.43 The first two factors
are the “most critical.”44 On the first prong, it found
that “Transco[ntinental] ha[d] already succeeded on
the merits.”45 The court quoted our decision in
41
A46-47.
42
A48-49.
43
Reilly v. City of Harrisburg, 858 F.3d 173, 176 (3d Cir.
2017).
44
Id. at 179. If the first two “gateway” factors are met, the
court “then considers the remaining two factors and determines
in its sound discretion if all four factors, taken together, balance
in favor of granting the requested preliminary relief.” Id.
45
A51.
App. 14
Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 1.01 Acres. In that

case, we affirmed the grant of partial summary judg-
ment in an action for condemnation and the grant of a
preliminary injunction, noting that there was “no re-
maining merits issue” because the District Court had
already ruled that the gas company had the right to
the easements by eminent domain.46
On the second prong, the District Court found that
Transcontinental would suffer irreparable harm in the
form of construction delays, inability to complete sur-
veys required to satisfy environmental conditions, risk
of non-compliance with shipper contracts, and mone-
tary harm.47
On the third prong, the District Court noted again
that Transcontinental already had the substantive
right to possession and the only question was “the tim-
ing of the possession.”48 If the permits to build certain
pipeline sections on the Landowners’ property were
eventually denied, the Landowners would have legal
recourse to recover their property.49
Finally, on the public interest prong, the District
Court noted the project’s potential to provide the gen-
eral public “throughout a vast area of the country” with
46
768 F.3d 300, 315 (3d Cir. 2014).
47
A53-54. The project is at an advanced stage. FERC has is-
sued a series of Notices to Proceed on the construction of the pro-
ject, and Transcontinental states in its brief that only 23% of the
construction remains to be completed.
48
A54.
49
A55.
App. 15
access to natural gas, and found that “the mere fact

that [certain subscribers] will have access to export fa-
cilities does not mean that they will in fact export the
natural gas out of the country.” 50 The District Court
noted also that FERC had found the project to be in
the public interest, which further tipped this factor in
favor of Transcontinental.51
The Landowners appealed.
II
As the grant of partial summary judgment did not
end the litigation as to all claims and all parties, only
the grant of the preliminary injunction is before us.52
We have jurisdiction over the appeal of the injunction
under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a). The Landowners, however,
do not bring a standard appeal of a preliminary injunc-
tion, reviewable for abuse of discretion. The Landown-
ers contest only the constitutionality of the lower
court’s procedure, not the application of the four-factor
50
The Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners point out that the pro-
ject is designed to generate 1,700,002 dekatherms per day, and
they argue that of this amount, 850,000 dekatherms, which is just
barely under 50%, will go to one shipper, Cabot Oil & Gas, which
plans to export this entire amount.
51
A56-57.
52
Andrews v. United States, 373 U.S. 334, 340 (1963).
App. 16
preliminary injunction test.53 Therefore, we review

their claims de novo.54
III
The Landowners ask us to hold that the procedure
followed by the District Court—grant of partial
summary judgment, awarding possession of the rights-
of-way, followed by equitable relief in the form of
preliminary injunction—is unconstitutional. The
Landowners argue that such a procedure is an uncon-
stitutional grant of “quick take” eminent domain
power, the type of eminent domain that allows for im-
mediate possession. Congress granted “quick take” em-
inent domain power to government actors in the
Declaration of Taking Act (DTA),55 but the NGA nei-
ther contains nor incorporates such a provision. The
Landowners argue that since Congress did not grant
natural gas companies “quick-take” eminent domain
power in the NGA, the court cannot, in effect, grant
such powers on its own; doing so usurps the legisla-
ture’s authority. The question before us then is
whether Congress, in passing the NGA, intended to re-
move the judiciary’s access to equitable remedies to en-
force an established substantive right. Put another
way, did Congress intend to forbid immediate access to
the necessary rights of way when it granted only
53
A56.
54
Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Attorney General, 825 F.3d
149, 159 (3d Cir. 2016).
55
40 U.S.C. § 3114.
App. 17
standard condemnation powers to natural gas compa-

nies?
A
We begin with the Landowners’ premise: that the
District Court effected a “quick-take.” As an initial
matter, eminent domain is a legislative power, but Con-
gress can delegate it to other governmental actors56 or
to private actors “execut[ing] works in which the public
is interested.”57
Congress generally does this by delegating the
power of eminent domain. There are two primary types
of eminent domain at the government’s disposal. One
is “quick take,” permitted by the DTA, 40 U.S.C. § 3114,
in which the government files a “declaration of taking”
that states the authority for the taking, the public use,
56
E.g., 33 U.S.C. § 594 (providing the Secretary of the Army
the authority to acquire land, through eminent domain proceed-
ings, “needed for a work of river and harbor improvements duly
authorized by Congress”).
57
Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co. v. Patterson, 98 U.S.
403, 406 (1878); see also First English Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Glendale v. Los Angeles County, Cal., 482 U.S. 304, 321
(1987) (“[T]he decision to exercise the power of eminent domain is
a legislative function.”); Monongahela Nav. Co. v. United States,
148 U.S. 312, 321 (1893). The Landowners acknowledge the exist-
ence of judicial takings, citing Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc.
v. Florida Dep’t Enviro. Protection, 560 U.S. 702, 713-14 (2010)),
but maintain that only Congress can grant eminent domain pow-
ers. See Secombe v. Milwaukee & St. P.R. Co., 90 U.S. 108, 117-
18 (1874) (“[T]he mode of exercising the right of eminent domain,
in the absence of any provision in the organic law prescribing a
contrary course, is within the discretion of the legislature.”).
App. 18
and an estimate of compensation. Upon depositing the

estimated compensation, title vests automatically with
the United States. The other is standard condemna-
tion, permitted by 40 U.S.C. § 3113, in which title
passes and the right to possession vests after a final
judgment and determination of just compensation. The
procedures for standard condemnations are set forth
in Fed. R. Civ. P. 71.1. The NGA is an example of a grant
of eminent domain power from Congress to a private
actor to condemn land for public use, but it only em-
bodies the second type—standard condemnation
power, not “quick take.”58
In the case before us, Transcontinental followed
standard condemnation procedure. The company filed
condemnation complaints under Rule 71.1, not a dec-
laration of taking. Rule 71.1 has requirements that go
beyond the DTA.59 Transcontinental followed these
procedures by filing condemnation complaints under
Rule 71.1; it then established its substantive right to
the property by filing for summary judgment. Only af-
ter the District Court granted summary judgment in
Transcontinental’s favor did it grant injunctive relief.
Transcontinental also posted bond at three times the
appraised value of the rights of way, as required by the
58
East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 820-
21 (4th Cir. 2004) (citing Mississippi & Rum River Boom Co. v.
Patterson, 98 U.S. at 406).
59
E.g., a condemnation complaint that explains the author-
ity for the taking, the uses for the property, a description suffi-
cient to identify the property, the interests to be acquired, and
each owner; notice and personal or publication service; and pro-
cedures for the determination and payment of just compensation.
App. 19
orders of condemnation.60 If Transcontinental had in

fact exercised “quick take,” it would have simply filed
a declaration of taking with an estimate of compensa-
tion; title would have vested automatically. Here, un-
like in a “quick take” action, Transcontinental does not
yet have title but will receive it once final compensa-
tion is determined and paid.61 Unlike in a “quick take”
action, the Landowners had the opportunity to brief
the summary judgment motions and participate in the
preliminary injunction hearing. The different proce-
dures and opportunities for participation distinguish
60
See A22, A99, A116, A77. We note that the Landowners
have not received any of this money. Rule 71.1(c)(4) allows the
court to “order any distribution of a deposit that the facts war-
rant.” At least one court has interpreted this provision to apply
only after the final determination of just compensation. UGI Sun-
bury LLC v. A Permanent Easement for 71.7575 Acres, 16-cv-788,
2016 WL 7239945, at *2 n.14 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 15, 2016). In UGI
Sunbury, the court interpreted an Advisory Committee note on
this section, which states that the sentence “enables the court to
expedite the distribution of a deposit, in whole or in part, as soon
as pertinent facts of ownership, value and the like are estab-
lished,” to mean that distribution can only occur after just com-
pensation is determined. Such a reading conflicts with subsection
(j)(2), which provides that “[i]f the compensation finally awarded
to a defendant exceeds the amount distributed to that defendant,”
the court must recoup the deficiency from the plaintiff, and the
reverse is true if the final amount awarded is less than the
amount distributed. Such a scheme would be unnecessary if de-
posits never occurred before final determination of just compen-
sation. In sum, while it does not seem to be common practice to
distribute compensation upon posting of the bonds, in cases pre-
senting hardship to landowners, the court’s hands may not be
tied.
61
Danforth v. United States, 308 U.S. 271, 284-85 (1939).
App. 20
the grant of the injunction here from an exercise of

“quick take” power.
B
The Landowners contend, nevertheless, that even
if the procedure below was not technically an exercise
of “quick take” eminent domain, the use of a prelimi-
nary injunction amounted to a “quick take.” However,
the technical distinctions they seek to elide are, in the
end, meaningful distinctions in the law. According to
the Landowners, there is a difference between the sub-
stantive right to access that arises under the NGA, and
the substantive right to immediate access, which only
Congress can authorize. The Like/Mohn Landowners
argue that granting injunctive relief for immediate
possession is in itself a substantive right of eminent
domain that a court cannot confer in the absence of
Congressional authorization. There is, however, no
case law to support the proposition that an injunctive
right of immediate possession is a substantive right,
conferrable only by Congress. The fact that “quick
take” power exists does not prohibit other kinds of im-
mediate access. The only substantive right at issue is
the right to condemn using eminent domain, conferred
by Congress in the NGA. The District Court found that
Transcontinental had obtained that right.62 The pre-
liminary injunction merely hastened the enforcement
62
See Seymour v. Freer, 75 U.S. 202, 213-14 (1868) (property
rights “distinct from the legal ownership . . . constitute an equity
which a court of equity will protect and enforce whenever its aid
for that purpose is properly invoked”).
App. 21
of the substantive right—it did not create any new

rights.63
The Like/Mohn Landowners portray Transconti-
nental as a customer who pays for 90% of an item and
then takes it home, but Transcontinental did not have
90% of a right to the rights of way—it had the whole
right. The Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners argue that
the fact that title to the property had not yet been
transferred is immaterial; it is the grant of the prelim-
inary injunction that is the essence of the “quick take”
power. To the contrary, we conclude that the equitable
means by which Transcontinental’s possession vested
through the preliminary injunction differed in signifi-
cant ways from “quick take” under the DTA. We decline
the invitation to conflate the two processes. These are
not trivial differences of procedure or paperwork.
The cases relied on by the Landowners are easily
distinguishable as they involve gas companies that
failed to obtain the crucial substantive right to con-
demn before seeking a preliminary injunction. In one,
Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. 17.19 Acres of Property Lo-
cated in Maricopa County,64 the Ninth Circuit held
that a preliminary injunction was not appropriate be-
cause the company did not obtain an order of condem-
nation. While the gas company argued that it was
guaranteed success on the merits due to its FERC
63
De Beers Consol. Mines, Ltd. v. United States, 325 U.S.
212, 220 (1945) (issuing preliminary injunction “appropriate to
grant intermediate relief of the same character as that which may
be granted finally”).
64
550 F.3d 770 (9th Cir. 2008).
App. 22
certificate and the fact that it met the § 717f(h) factors,

at the time it sought equitable relief it had no right to
condemn.65 The Ninth Circuit explicitly endorsed the
procedure of first obtaining an order of condemnation
(as Transcontinental did here through partial sum-
mary judgment) followed by a request for preliminary
injunction.66
The Seventh Circuit’s Northern Border decision is
similar.67 There, the gas company moved for immediate
possession before the district court issued a decision on
the merits of its eminent domain proceeding. Since the
company had only the FERC certificate, the court de-
nied its request: “A preliminary injunction may issue
only when the moving party has a substantive entitle-
ment to the relief sought. . . . [The company has] an en-
titlement that will arise at the conclusion of the
normal eminent domain process” but not the right of
immediate access.68 The Landowners place much em-
phasis on the recognition in Northern Border that the
NGA does not incorporate “quick take” authority under
state law or under the DTA and on the statement in
Northern Border that the NGA “does not create an en-
titlement to immediate possession of the land.”69 Both
those statements are true: the NGA does not incorpo-
rate “quick take” authority and does not on its own
65
Id. at 773, 777.
66
Id. at 777.
67
Northern Border Pipeline Co. v. 86.72 Acres of Land, 144
F.3d 469 (7th Cir. 1998).
68
44 F.3d at 471.
69
Id. at 471, 472 (citation omitted).
App. 23
create an entitlement to immediate possession. But

Northern Border is clearly distinguishable because of
the gas company’s failure to “obtain an order determin-
ing that it had the right to condemn before it sought a
preliminary injunction. . . . Without having that right
in substantive law determined, the company could not
invoke equity.”70
The Landowners also suggest that due process,
the Fifth Amendment, or some combination of the two
require payment of just compensation before a con-
demnor can take possession. Such an argument di-
rectly contradicts established law that “due process
does not require the condemnation of land to be in ad-
vance of its occupation by the condemning authority,
provided only that the owner have opportunity, in the
course of the condemnation proceedings, to be heard
and to offer evidence as to the value of the land
taken.”71 In addition, compensation need not be paid
contemporaneously with the taking; instead, the Fifth
Amendment requires only that a provision for pay-
ment must be available.72 Thus the Landowners’
70
Sage, 361 F.3d at 827-28.
71
Bailey v. Anderson, 326 U.S. 203, 205 (1945); see also Pres-
ley v. City of Charlottesville, 464 F.3d 480, 489-90 (4th Cir. 2006)
(“[W]hen the alleged deprivation is effectively a physical taking,
procedural due process is satisfied so long as private property
owners may pursue meaningful postdeprivation procedures to re-
cover just compensation.”); Collier v. City of Springsdale, 733 F.2d
1311, 1314 (8th Cir. 1984).
72
See Preseault v. I.C.C., 494 U.S. 1, 11 (1990).
App. 24
reliance on Kirby Forest Industries v. United States,73

Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kansas Railway Co.,74
and Atlantic Seaboard Corp. v. Van Sterkenburg75 is
73
467 U.S. 1 (1984). Kirby explained how Rule 71.1 operates
in standard condemnation proceedings, where the “practical ef-
fect of final judgment on the issue of just compensation is to give
the Government an option to buy the property at the adjudicated
price.” Id. at 4. The central question in Kirby was how to deter-
mine the date on which a taking should be deemed to occur, a
question that affected the amount of interest due on a condemna-
tion proceeding award.
74
135 U.S. 641 (1890). The act at issue in Cherokee provided
for full compensation “before the railway shall be constructed,”
though the Court also stated that the Constitution “does not pro-
vide or require that compensation shall be actually paid in ad-
vance of the occupancy of the land to be taken; but the owner is
entitled to reasonable, certain, and adequate provision for obtain-
ing compensation before his occupancy is disturbed.” Id. at 659.
The Court noted that it could sometimes be difficult to judge
whether a particular provision was “sufficient to secure the com-
pensation” to which a landowner is entitled under the Constitu-
tion, but that it had no trouble finding the statute at issue
constitutional. Id.
75
318 F.2d 455 (4th Cir. 1963). The gas company in this case
followed the condemnation procedures of Rule 71.1, and after the
determination of just compensation, announced that it wished to
proceed immediately with the construction of the pipeline. Id. at
459-60. It is not clear why the gas company chose to wait until
after the just compensation phase to seek possession. In any
event, the court upheld an order permitting the company to pay
the award and begin using the easement because “[i]nherently . . .
the condemnation court possesses the power to authorize imme-
diate entry by the condemnor upon the condemned premises . . . .
There is no valid reason why an owner . . . should be allowed,
by a fruitless and meritless appeal, to postpone indefinitely the
condemnor’s enjoyment of the premises, imposing upon the con-
demnor great, perhaps irreparable, damage, all without risk of
further loss or injury to the owner.” Id. at 460 (emphasis added).
The case is distinguishable because the gas company completed
App. 25
misplaced. None of these cases lend support to the

Landowners’ argument that Transcontinental’s right
to possession of the properties will not vest until
Transcontinental has exercised its option to buy the
properties at the adjudicated price.
The Landowners go on to contend that because the
NGA does not grant “quick take” power, the statute
does not permit immediate possession.76 They make
this argument without any explanation for why a dis-
trict court’s authority to issue a preliminary injunction
should disappear when a condemnation proceeding
has been filed. Nothing in the NGA suggests either ex-
plicitly or implicitly that the rules governing prelimi-
nary injunctions should be suspended in condemnation
proceedings.
Historically, the NGA, when first enacted, did
countenance a wide variety of eminent domain proce-
dures because it required district courts to conform “as
nearly as may be” with the eminent domain procedure
of the state in which the property was situated. The
condemnation procedures before seeking possession, but even so,

Atlantic Seaboard’s recognition of an “inherent[]” power to au-
thorize “immediate entry” more squarely helps Transcontinental.
76
For example, the Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners cite to
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority v. One Parcel of
Land in Montgomery County, 706 F.2d 1312 (4th Cir. 1983). In
that case, the Fourth Circuit upheld a quick take because Con-
gress explicitly made the DTA available to the transit authority.
It did not do so in the NGA. The case does not address the use of
injunctions to permit immediate possession, and we do not find
the case to be persuasive evidence that the NGA prohibits such
injunctions.
App. 26
state procedures protected landowners to a varying de-

gree.77 Reliance on state eminent domain procedures
ended with the adoption of Rule 71.1 (previously num-
bered 71A), which created a nationally uniform ap-
proach to eminent domain proceedings, and which,
because it conflicted with § 717f(h), superseded the
state-conformity language in the NGA.78 Courts now
generally agree that condemnation proceedings under
the NGA should follow Rule 71.1.79
77
In states with no specific pipe line condemnation statutes,
courts made do with laws intended for private utilities in general.
E.g., Williams v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., 89
F. Supp. 485, 487-88 (W.D.S.C. 1950) (“[A]ll that is needed to
make the grant effective is a State court procedure which meets
the requirements of due process and which can be reasonably uti-
lized . . . . The [state] procedure . . . meets these requirements. It
furnishes due process. With its Clerks’ juries, composed of the
landowners’ neighbors, to pass upon the compensation originally,
and with the right of appeal therefrom to the Common Pleas
Court with a de novo jury trial, the procedure affords every pro-
tection to the landowner.” (citations omitted)).
78
Northern Border Pipeline Co. v. 64.111 Acres of Land, 344
F.3d 693, 694 (7th Cir. 2003) (“Congress may itself decide that
procedural rules in statutes should be treated as fallbacks, to ap-
ply only when rules are silent. And it has done just this. . . . Thus
Rule 71A(h) prevails: its nationally uniform approach conflicts
with the conformity-to-state-practice approach of § 717f(h), and
under [the Rules Enabling Act’s supersession clause] the statu-
tory rule ‘shall be of no further force or effect.’ ”) (citing Henderson
v. United States, 517 U.S. 654 (1996)); see also United States v.
93.970 Acres of Land, 360 U.S. 328, 333 n.7 (1959) (holding simi-
lar language in another statute “clearly repealed by Rule 71A”).
79
Northern Border Pipeline Co., 344 F.3d at 694; Sage, 361
F.3d at 822; Southern Natural Gas Co. v. Land, Cullman County,
197 F.3d 1368, 1375 (11th Cir. 1999) (“It is clear to us that Rule
71A was promulgated to override a number of confusing federal
App. 27
Moreover, we see no reason to read a repeal of Rule

65, governing preliminary injunctions, into the NGA.
In fact, subsection (a) of Rule 71.1 incorporates the
other Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—including the
preliminary injunction rule, Rule 65—in condemna-
tion proceedings to the extent Rule 71.1 does not gov-
ern. We do not so easily exterminate equitable
remedies.
In so holding, we find the Fourth Circuit opinion
in East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. v. Sage80 persuasive.
There, the landowners argued “that Congress does not
intend for gas companies to gain immediate possession
because it has not granted statutory quick-take power
to gas companies as it has to government officers who
condemn property in the name of the United States.”81
But the court held that this argument “overlooks the
preliminary injunction remedy provided in the Federal
eminent domain practice and procedure provisions, such as that

of 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h), and to provide a unified and coherent set
of rules and procedures to be used in deciding federal eminent
domain actions.”). But see Delaware Riverkeeper Network v.
FERC, 895 F.3d 102, 110-11 (3d Cir. 2018) (noting that the NGA
ensures the occurrence of “a hearing that itself affords due pro-
cess” with respect to the taking because the statute provides that
eminent domain actions conform with the practice and procedure
of such actions in the courts of the state where the property is
situated); contra Township of Bordentown, NJ v. FERC, Nos. 17-
1047, 17-3207, 2018 WL 4212061, at *18 n.21 (3d Cir. Sept. 5,
2018) (NGA “requires district courts to attempt to mirror the state
courts’ condemnation proceedings”).
80
361 F.3d 808.
81
Id. at 824.
App. 28
Rules.”82 Rule 71.1 “provides . . . that the regular rules

of procedure apply to any subject not covered by the
special rule.”83 Thus, there was no reason why equita-
ble relief “in the form of immediate possession” would
be “barred in a condemnation case.”84 As the Sage court
noted, the landowners, in their attempts to protect
themselves from immediate possession, seemed to as-
sume that the preliminary injunction process was
somehow less protective of their interests than “quick
take” procedures. The court held, however, that when
condemning land under the NGA, “a gas company that
seeks immediate possession has a much stiffer burden
than the government does under the DTA” because the
gas company must first establish the substantive right
to condemn and then prevail on the four factors con-
sidered in preliminary injunctions.85
Under either procedure, a “quick take” or condem-
nation under Rule 71.1, landowners are protected from
the possibility of initial underpayment; with standard
condemnation plus preliminary injunction, if the com-
pany does not pay the difference within a reasonable
time, it will be liable for trespass.86 The Landowners
claim that Sage did not address the separation of pow-
ers arguments they bring here, but a panel of the
Fourth Circuit recently followed Sage and persuasively
82
Id.
83
Id.
84
Id.
85
Id. at 825-26.
86
Id. at 825 (citing Cherokee Nation, 135 U.S. at 660).
App. 29
demonstrated that the opinion did in fact consider sep-

aration of powers principles.87 And this Court, too, al-
beit with less discussion, has ruled that where
summary judgment is properly granted on a condem-
nation complaint, a preliminary injunction is appropri-
ate as well. We effectively granted immediate access on
the basis that the gas company had demonstrated suc-
cess on the merits and strong arguments on the other
prongs of the preliminary injunction test.88
As the preliminary injunction was permitted by
the Rules, permitted by the NGA, and did not amount
to a grant of “quick take” eminent domain power in ei-
ther name or substance, the court did not usurp legis-
lative power or otherwise overstep the boundaries of
its judicial power. We therefore see no violation of the
87
Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 76 Acres, More or
Less, 701 F. App’x 221, 231 n.7 (4th Cir. 2017) (rejecting landown-
ers’ argument that “Sage is distinguishable because it did not
mention the words ‘separation of powers’ ” in part because Sage
explicitly rejected the assertion “that only Congress can grant the
right of immediate possession”).
88
Columbia Gas v. 1.01 Acres, 768 F.3d at 315-16. We note
that district courts around the country have implemented the pro-
cedure, relying on the Circuit decisions like Sage. See Transcon-
tinental Gas Pipe Line Co., LLC v. Permanent Easement for 0.03
Acres, 17-cv-565, 2017 WL 3485752, at *4 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 15,
2017) (“It is commonplace for district courts to order immediate
possession after FERC has taken a lengthy period of time deter-
mining whether or not to issue a certificate of public convenience
and necessity.”) (collecting cases). See also Alliance Pipeline L.P.
v. 4.360 Acres of Land, 746 F.3d 362 (8th Cir. 2014) (no abuse of
discretion in granting pipeline’s immediate use and possession
following FERC certificate and grant of summary judgment and
preliminary injunction).
App. 30
principle of separation of powers in the District Court’s

procedure.
The Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners argue sepa-
rately that the District Court’s procedure deprived
them of any meaningful opportunity to challenge
FERC’s public use determination. This argument also
fails.
First, and most importantly, the Hilltop/Hoffman
Landowners do not dispute that they had the oppor-
tunity to raise their concerns with FERC and did in
fact do so;89 sought stays of the construction, which
were denied;90 and sought rehearing,91 which was also
denied on December 6, 2017.92 Before the order deny-
ing rehearing, the Landowners appealed to the D.C.
89
Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners submitted 9 comments to
FERC. Like/Mohn Landowners submitted 47 comments.
90
Order Denying Stay, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.,
LLC, 160 FERC ¶ 61,042 (Aug. 31, 2017), Accession No.
20170831-3088.
91
Request for Rehearing and Motion for Stay of Certain
Landowners (Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5123; Peti-
tion for Rehearing of Lynda Like of Order Issuing Certificate for
the Atlantic Sunrise Project and Request for Stay of Certificate
(Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5204; Petition for Rehear-
ing of Follin Smith and Blair and Megan Mohn of Order Issuing
Certificate for the Atlantic Sunrise Project and Request for Stay
of Certificate (Mar. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20170306-5202.
92
Order on Rehearing, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co.,
LLC, 161 FERC ¶ 61,250 (Dec. 6, 2017), Accession No. 20171206-
3073. The D.C. Circuit denied the landowners’ request for a stay
pending the appeal of the FERC Order. Allegheny Def. Project v.
Fed. Energy Regulatory Comm’n, Nos. 17-1098, 17-1128, 17-1263,
18-1030, 2018 WL 1388557 (D.C. Cir. Feb. 16, 2018) (per curiam).
App. 31
Circuit Court, where the case is pending.93 The NGA

explicitly provides that neither a request for rehearing
before FERC nor judicial review can stay the effective-
ness of a FERC certificate.94
In sum, the Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners are at-
tacking the underlying FERC order, but review of the
underlying FERC order is only properly brought to
FERC on rehearing and then to an appropriate circuit
court, as the Hilltop/Hoffman Landowners are pursu-
ing. We lack jurisdiction to hear collateral attacks on
the FERC certificate, which contained a finding that
the project was for public use.95 Neither the District
Court nor this Court in this case may entertain argu-
ments such as those brought by the Hilltop/Hoffman
Landowners that FERC unduly credited self-serving
statements by Transcontinental and ignored the po-
tential that the project might have been intended to
provide companies with greater access to the higher
priced overseas market.96
V
The Landowners do not appeal the preliminary in-
junction based on an abuse of discretion in the District
Court’s analysis and so have waived that argument on
appeal. Even so construed, their petition lacks merit.
93
Nos. 17-1128, 18-1030.
94
15 U.S.C. § 717r(c).
95
15 U.S.C. § 717r(b) (appeal of the certificate allowed in the
circuit where the gas company is located or in the D.C. Circuit).
96
Hilltop/Hoffman Brief at 37, 38.
App. 32
Transcontinental clearly showed success on the merits

and would have been harmed if the injunction were de-
nied.
For the above reasons, we hold that the NGA’s
grant of standard condemnation powers to natural gas
companies does not preclude federal courts from grant-
ing equitable relief in the form of a preliminary injunc-
tion when gas companies have obtained the
substantive right to condemn and otherwise qualify for
equitable relief. Because the Landowners fail to recog-
nize the District Court’s equitable power to enter pre-
liminary injunctions once substantive rights are
determined, their appeals lack merit. We therefore af-
firm the orders of the District Court, granting the mo-
tions for preliminary injunctions.
App. 33
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS
PIPE LINE COMPANY, LLC,
Plaintiff,
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT
FOR 2.14 ACRES AND TEM- CIVIL ACTION
PORARY EASEMENTS FOR NO. 17-715
3.59 ACRES IN CONESTOGA
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA,
TAX PARCEL NUMBER
1201606900000, et al,
Defendants.
Plaintiff,
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT
FOR 1.33 ACRES, TEMPO-
RARY EASEMENTS FOR CIVIL ACTION
2.28 ACRES IN CONESTOGA NO. 17-720
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER
TAX PARCEL NUMBER
1202476100000, 4160 MAIN
STREET, CONESTOGA, PA
17516, et al,
Defendants.
App. 34
Plaintiff,
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT
FOR 0.94 ACRES AND TEM-
CIVIL ACTION
PORARY EASEMENTS FOR
NO. 17-722
1.61 ACRES IN CONESTOGA
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER
TAX PARCEL NUMBER
1203589400000, SICKMAN
MILL ROAD, et al,
Defendants.
Plaintiff,
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT
CIVIL ACTION
2.76 ACRES IN MANOR
NO. 17-723
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER
TAX PARCEL NUMBER
4100300500000, 3049 SAFE
HARBOR ROAD, MANOR
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER, PA,
et al,
Defendants.
App. 35
Plaintiff,
v.
PERMANENT EASEMENT
CIVIL ACTION
NO. 17-1725
1.65 ACRES IN WEST
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP,
LANCASTER COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA, TAX PAR-
CEL NUMBER 3000462100000,
et al,
Defendants.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
Schmel J. [J.L.S] August 23, 2017
I. INTRODUCTION
Plaintiff, Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company,
LLC (“Transco”), is involved in a project to construct
and operate a natural gas pipeline running through
five states, including a portion of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. Before the Court is the Motion for Par-
tial Summary Judgment of Plaintiff in the four of the
five above-captioned cases.1 Defendant/landowners
1
On July 7, 2017, this Court granted Plaintiff ’s Motion for
Partial Summary Judgment in case number 17-1725 as unop-
posed, but declined to grant Plaintiff ’s Motion for Preliminary In-
junction as to the landowners in that matter, the Adorers of the
Blood of Christ (“Adorers”). Accordingly, this opinion will address
App. 36
Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership, Hilltop Hollow

Partnership, LLC, General Partner to Hilltop Hollow
Limited Partnership (“Hilltop”), Stephen Hoffman
(“Hoffman”), Blair and Megan Mohn (“Mohn”) and
Lynda Like (“Like”) all filed oppositions to Plaintiff ’s
Motions for Partial Summary Judgment. Plaintiff filed
replies, and argument was held on said motions.
Also before the Court is Transco’s Motions for Pre-
liminary Injunction as to the four landowners above,
as well as Adorers of the Blood of Christ, United States
Province (“Adorers”). The landowners in question have
opposed Plaintiff ’s Motions for Preliminary Injunc-
tion, and an evidentiary hearing was held on said mo-
tions. For the following reasons, I find that Plaintiff has
the substantive right to condemn the properties in
question and Plaintiff ’s Motions for Partial Summary
Judgment are granted. Further, I find that Plaintiff
has the right to immediate possession of the properties
in question and Plaintiff ’s Motions for Preliminary In-
junction are granted.
II. MOTIONS FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDG-

MENT
A. LEGAL STANDARD
Summary judgment is appropriate if there is no
genuine dispute as to any material fact and the moving
party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Fed.
the Motions for Partial Summary Judgment in case numbers 17-

715, 17-720, 17-722, and 17-723. It will also dispose of the Motion
for Preliminary Injunction in those four cases, as well as 17-1725.
App. 37
R. Civ. Proc. 56(c). “A motion for summary judgment

will not be defeated by ‘the mere existence’ of some dis-
puted facts, but will be denied when there is a genuine
issue of material fact,” Am. Eagle Outfitters v. Lyle &
Scott Ltd., 584 F.3d 575, 581 (3d Cir. 2009) (quoting An-
derson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-248
(1986)). A fact is “material” if proof of its existence or
non-existence might affect the outcome of the litiga-
tion, and a dispute is “genuine” if “the evidence is such
that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the
nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248.
In undertaking this analysis, the court views the
facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving
party. “After making all reasonable inferences in the
nonmoving party’s favor, there is a genuine issue of
material fact if a reasonable jury could find for the non-
moving party.” Pignataro v. Port Auth. of N.Y. and N.J.,
593 F.3d 265, 268 (3d Cir. 2010) (citing Reliance Ins. Co.
v. Moessner, 121 F.3d 895, 900 (3d Cir. 1997)). While the
moving party bears the initial burden of showing the
absence of a genuine issue of material fact, meeting
this obligation shifts the burden to the non-moving
party who must “set forth specific facts showing that
there is a genuine issue for trial.” Anderson, 477 U.S.
at 250.
B. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On March 31, 2015, Transco filed an application
with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(“FERC”) under section 7(c) of the Natural Gas Act, 15
App. 38
U.S.C. § 717f(c), and Part 157 of the FERC’s regula-

tions for a certificate of public convenience and neces-
sity for its project to construct and operate a natural
gas pipeline in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina and South Carolina. On October 22,
2015, FERC mailed a letter to affected landowners, de-
scribing the project and inviting them to participate in
the environmental review process. (FERC Order, ¶ 68.)
On May 5, 2016, FERC issued a draft Environmental
Impact Statement, setting a public comment period
from May 12, 2016 to June 27, 2016. (FERC Order,
¶ 72.) FERC staff held four public comment meetings
between June 13 and 16, 2016, at which over 200
speakers commented. (Id.) FERC also received over
560 written comments in response to the draft EIS.
(Id.)
On October 13, 2016, FERC sent a letter to land-
owners regarding two alternative pipeline routes, and
allowed a special 30 day comment period, during which
time it received 25 letters regarding the proposed al-
ternatives. (FERC Order, ¶ 73.) On November 3, 2016,
FERC issued for comment a draft General Conformity
Determination. (FERC Order, ¶ 74.) On December 30,
2016, FERC issued a final Environmental Impact
Statement. (FERC Order, ¶ 75.) Thereafter, on Febru-
ary 3, 2017, FERC issued an order granting Transco a
certificate of public convenience and necessity to con-
struct, install, modify, operate, and maintain the Pro-
ject known as the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. (David
Sztroin Declaration, ¶ 13.) In order to construct, in-
stall, operate and maintain the FERC-approved
App. 39
project, Transco needs to obtain rights of way as de-

scribed and depicted as Exhibit A attached to the Com-
plaint in each of the above matters and as Exhibit B
attached to the Sztroin declaration. (Sztroin Dec., ¶ 2,
17.) These rights of way conform to the pipeline route
reviewed and approved by the FERC in the order of
February 3, 2017. (Sztroin Dec., ¶ 18.) The value of the
Rights of Way sought in each of the above matters is
claimed by the respective Landowners to be in excess
of $3,000, as each Landowner has rejected an offer by
Transco to purchase the rights of way for more than
$3,000. (Declaration of Aaron Blair, ¶¶ 8, 9.)
The FERC Certificate lists timely and untimely in-
tervenors. To be considered a timely intervenor, a land-
owner was required to file a motion to intervene within
two weeks of April 15, 2015, when notice of Transco’s
application was published in the Federal Register.
Landowner Stephen Hoffman timely intervened and
Gary and Michelle Erb (owners of Hilltop Hollow) also
intervened, albeit untimely, in the FERC proceeding as
party intervenors. (FERC Order, Appendix A and B.)
Although they did not intervene in the FERC proceed-
ings, Landowners Blair and Megan Mohn and Lynda
Like submitted comments to FERC regarding the pro-
ject during the public comment period.
C. DISCUSSION
The Natural Gas Act permits the holder of a cer-
tificate of public convenience and necessity issued by
FERC to use eminent domain to acquire rights of way
App. 40
necessary to construct, operate and maintain a project

as approved by the FERC Order. 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h).
Courts have held that the NGA authorizes a party to
exercise the federal power of eminent domain if it
meets the three-prong test set forth in the statute:
1) The party must hold a FERC Certificate of
Public Convenience and Necessity;
2) The party has not been able to acquire the
property rights required to construct, operate
and maintain a FERC-approved pipeline by
agreement with the landowners; and
3) The value of the property sought to be con-
demned is more than $3,000.
Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 1.01 Acres, 768
F.3d 300, 304 (3d Cir. 2014); Steckman Ridge GP, LLC
v. An Exclusive Natural Gas Storage Easement Be-
neath 11.078 Acres, No. 08-168, 2008 WL 4346405, at
*12-*13 (W.D. Pa. Sept. 19, 2008); Alliance Pipeline L.P.
v. 4.360 Acres of Land, 746 F.3d 362, 364 (8th Cir. 2014);
Millennium Pipeline Co., L.L.C. v. Certain Permanent
and Temporary Easements, 777 F.Supp.2d 475, 479
(W.D. N.Y. 2011); aff ’d 552 F.App’x 37 (2d Cir. 2014).
In the above matters, there is no dispute that
Transco holds a FERC certificate, that it has been un-
able to acquire the property rights in question to con-
struct, operate and maintain the FERC-approved
pipeline by agreement with the landowners, and that
the value of the properties in question is greater than
$3,000. However, the landowners have opposed the en-
try of partial summary judgment in this matter and
App. 41
present several arguments in opposition to Transco’s

exercise of eminent domain. Landowners Hilltop and
Hoffman argue that they have been denied their due
process rights under the Fifth Amendment to the
United States Constitution and that Plaintiff therefore
does not have the authority to condemn the Rights of
Way. Landowners Like and Mohn argue that the FERC
order is a “conditioned” order without “force or effect”
and that the Rights of Way being condemned exceed
the scope of the FERC order. As discussed below, I find
that all of these arguments are unpersuasive. Land-
owners cannot establish any genuine issue of material
fact as to the three conditions set forth in the Natural
Gas Act required prior to the exercise of eminent do-
main by Transco; therefore, Plaintiff is entitled to the
entry of partial summary judgment in this matter.
1. HILLTOP HOLLOW AND HOFFMAN

Hilltop Hollow and Hoffman (“Hilltop”) do not dis-
pute the fact that Transco has a FERC certificate, has
been unable to acquire the rights of way that it needs
to construct its pipeline, and that the value of the prop-
erty in question is over $3,000. Rather, Hilltop argues
that its due process rights under the Fifth Amendment
are being violated.
First, Hilltop argues that this Court has jurisdic-
tion in this matter beyond the issue of fair compensa-
tion. Hilltop admits that “FERC’s procedures and the
Natural Gas Act provide that substantive challenges
to the Certificate Order be directed in the first instance
App. 42
to FERC,” but then argues that the “importance of

Hilltop’s right to due process and the de facto finality
of the proposed taking,” should overrule the FERC pro-
visions that prohibit substantive challenges in this
Court.2
This argument is incorrect. Hilltop’s claims of due
process violations are in fact attacks on the FERC or-
der itself, disguised as constitutional claims. It is
widely accepted that the validity of a FERC Order can
only be challenged in front of FERC, and then in the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Co-
lumbia Circuit. It is important that this precedent be
followed so large pipeline projects cannot be chal-
lenged in many forums, so as to establish a sole final
arbiter for the decisions. In Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.
v. 104 Acres of Land More of Less, 749 F.Supp. 427
(D.R.I. 1990), the court set forth the limitations of a
federal district court in reviewing FERC Certificates of
Public Convenience and Necessity pursuant to the
Natural Gas Act. It stated:
United States District Courts have a limited
scope of review under Section 7(h) of the Nat-
ural Gas Act. Disputes over the reasons and
procedure for issuing certificates of public
convenience and necessity must be brought to
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
2
I note that Hilltop also argues that since FERC presently
has only one member, it lacks a quorum to address its request for
rehearing. However, on August 3, 2017, the United States Senate
confirmed two additional members of FERC. Therefore, FERC
now has a quorum and this argument of Hilltop is moot and will
be disregarded.
App. 43
for hearing. 15 U.S.C. § 717f(b). The District

Court’s role is to evaluate the scope of the cer-
tificate and to order condemnation of property
as authorized in the certificate. See Williams
Natural Gas Co. v. Oklahoma City, 890 F.2d
255, 262 (10th Cir.1989) (“Judicial review . . .
is exclusive in the courts of appeals once the
FERC certificate issues.”), cert denied, 497
U.S. 1003, 110 S.Ct. 3236, 111 L.Ed.2d 747
(1990); Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp.
v. 118 Acres of Land, 745 F.Supp. 366
(E.D.La.1990) (“review of FERC orders are to
be made only to United States Circuit Courts
of Appeal”). District Courts, therefore, are lim-
ited to jurisdiction to order condemnation of
property in accord with a facially valid certif-
icate. Questions of the propriety or validity of
the certificate must first be brought to the
Commission upon an application for rehear-
ing and the Commissioner’s action thereafter
may be reviewed by a United States Court of
Appeals.
Id. at 430. See also Steckman Ridge GP, LLC v. An Ex-
clusive Nat. Gas Storage Easement Beneath 11.078
Acres, 2008 WL 4346405, at *4 (W.D. Pa. Sept. 19, 2008)
(“Under the statutory framework, there is no appeal of
a FERC decision save to the appropriate Court of Ap-
peals. Disputes as to the propriety of FERC’s proceed-
ings, findings, orders, or reasoning, must be brought to
FERC by way of request for rehearing. Appeals may
thereafter be brought before a U.S. Court of Appeals
only.”)
App. 44
Clearly, abundant case law states that the juris-

diction of this court in this type of proceeding is to or-
der condemnation only. Hilltop has failed to cite any
case that supports its proposition that this Court has
jurisdiction in this matter to independently address
the validity of the FERC order. Therefore, I find that
this Court lacks the jurisdiction to address any sort
of attack on the FERC order itself, constitutional or
otherwise.
Next, Hilltop argues that it has not been afforded
its due process right to challenge whether the project
serves a public purpose. It is undisputed in this matter
that Hilltop participated in the pre-deprivation hear-
ing, filed a request for rehearing a FERC, and filed a
challenge to the FERC order in the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
As discussed above, this is the proper forum in which
to challenge the validity of a FERC order. Although
Hilltop’s request for rehearing is pending in front of
FERC, the NGA provides that the filing of a request
for rehearing shall not, unless specifically ordered by
FERC, operate as a stay of the certificate order. 15
U.S.C. § 717r(c); see Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co., 749 F.Supp.
at 431 (“Applications for rehearing by three public util-
ity companies are presently before the commission.
However, the Natural Gas Act directs that an applica-
tion for a rehearing shall not operate as a stay of the
Commission’s order unless specifically ordered by the
Commission or by a reviewing Court of Appeals.”)
Hilltop received adequate due process at the
FERC level, and on appeal. Its attempt to claim due
App. 45
process violations to this Court is a collateral attack to

the FERC order, which is not permitted. Any challenge
to the substance and/or validity of the order belongs in
front of FERC. “The district court’s function under the
statute is not appellate, but rather, to provide for en-
forcement.” Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC v. +/- 0.14
Acres of Land, 2016 WL 3189010 at *2 (M.D. Fl. June
8, 2016).
Further, the specific collateral attack that Hilltop
presents here, i.e., that the FERC order does not serve
a public purpose, has been rejected by other courts. See
Constitution Pipeline Co., LLC v. A Permanent Ease-
ment for 1.52 Acres, 2015 WL 12556149, at *3 (N.D.N.Y.
Feb. 26, 2015) (“[D]efendants argue that the FERC Or-
der does not support a public purpose . . . plaintiff cor-
rectly points put that once a FERC certificate is issued,
judicial review of the FERC certificate itself is only
available in the circuit court.”). In addition, to the ex-
tent Hilltop is arguing that the process by which FERC
granted the certificate is deficient, that type of attack
has also been rejected. See Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co. v. 104
Acres of Land, 749 F.Supp. at 430 (finding that dis-
putes over the procedures for issuing certificates of
public convenience and necessity must be brought to
the FERC for rehearing, and thereafter to a federal
court of appeals).
In addition, I find that even if this Court did have
jurisdiction to consider Hilltop’s constitutional argu-
ments, which it does not, no due process violations
App. 46
have occurred. Hilltop presents two arguments regard-

ing their constitutional due process rights.3 First, they
argue that due process requires an in-person eviden-
tiary hearing prior to the issuance of the FERC order,
or prior to condemnation. Second, they argue that
FERC’s issuance of a Tolling Order which extends
FERC’s time to decide Hilltop’s request for rehearing
and a stay violates their due process rights, will ad-
dress both arguments below.
First, reject Defendant’s argument that due pro-
cess requires an in-person evidentiary hearing before
a FERC order can be issued. In the instant matter,
FERC issued the Order after a “paper hearing,” mean-
ing Hilltop and other affected landowners submitted
written objections during the certificate review and
comment period, Hilltop claims that it is entitled to an
in-person hearing on this matter, and argues that the
lack of such a hearing violates its right to be heard.
However, the NGA does not require an in-person evi-
dentiary hearing. “FERC’s choice whether to hold an
evidentiary hearing is generally discretionary.” Blu-
menthal v. FERC, 613 F.3d 1142, 1144 (D.C.Cir.2010).
“In general, FERC must hold an evidentiary hearing
only when a genuine issue of material fact exists, and
even then, FERC need not conduct such a hearing if
[the disputed issues] may be adequately resolved on
3
Hilltop also argues that because FERC lacks a quorum,
they have no effective means to challenge the FERC Order, and
its due process rights are therefore being violated, As discussed
above, FERC has a quorum as of August 3, 2017, Therefore, this
argument is moot.
App. 47
the written record.” Cajun Elec. Power Coop., Inc. v.

FERC, 28 F.3d 173, 177 (D.C.Cir.1994) (internal cita-
tions and quotation marks omitted) (alteration in orig-
inal). See also Minisink Residents for Envtl. Pres. &
Safety v. F.E.R.C., 762 F.3d 97, 114 (D.C. Cir. 2014).
Clearly, FERC was not required to hold an in-person
evidentiary hearing in this matter, and the fact that
they granted the Order after a paper hearing does not
result in a due process violation.
In addition, federal courts have found that, for
purposes of a taking, due process only requires that
reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard is
provided in the compensation stage of the proceedings.
See Collier v. City of Springdale, 733 F.2d 1311, 1314
(8th Cir. 1984); Presley v. City of Charlottesville, 464
F.3d 480, 489 (4th Cir. 2006).4
Next, Hilltop argues that FERC’s tolling order de-
prives them of their due process rights because it “in-
definitely” extends FERC’s “time limit to rule on
[Landowners’] Motion for Rehearing and stay.” In re-
sponse, Transco argues that the issuance of the Tolling
Order does not deprive Hilltop of a protectable due pro-
cess, and therefore it is not entitled to due process pro-
tections. I find Transco is correct. Although a cause of
action constitutes a protectable property interest for
4
I find that Hilltop’s reliance on Brody v. Village of Port
Chester, 434 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2005) and Finberg v. Sullivan, 634
F.2d 50 (3d Cir. 1980) in support of their argument that they are
entitled to a pre-deprivation judicial hearing is misplaced, as nei-
ther case addresses a taking under the Natural Gas Act and both
are clearly distinguishable from the instant set of facts.
App. 48
the purposes of evaluation of due process violations,

mere delays in the adjudication of a claim do not
amount to a deprivation of property. See Council of &
for the Bline of Delaware Cty. Valley, Inc. v. Regan, 709
F.2d 1521, 1533-34 (D.C. Cir. 1983) (“In order to state a
legally cognizable constitutional claim, appellants
must allege more than the deprivation of the expecta-
tion that the agency will carry out its duties.”) (empha-
sis in original); see also Polk v. Kramarsky, 711 F.2d
505, 508-09 (2d Cir. 1983) (finding that plaintiff ’s prop-
erty right, while delayed, was not extinguished, and
that no deprivation of property interest occurred). The
reconstituted FERC, now with a quorum to act, has the
ability to address Hilltop and the other landowners’
claims for relief. Accordingly, Hilltop’s due process
claims must fail.
2. LIKE AND MOHN

Landowners Lynda Like and Brian and Megan
Mohn (“Like and Mohn”) do not dispute that FERC is-
sued an order granting a certificate of public conven-
ience and necessity, that the value of the rights of way
sought exceed $3,000, that Transco has been unable to
obtain the Rights of Way in question from the landown-
ers, and that the Rights of Way being condemned con-
form to the pipeline route that was contained in the
FERC order. Accordingly, they are clearly unable to
present any genuine issues of material fact regarding
Transco’s substantive right to condemn. Like and
Mohn instead argue that the FERC order is a “condi-
tional order” that is “without force and effect” and that
App. 49
the rights of way being condemned exceed the scope of

the FERC order. I find both of these arguments to be
unpersuasive.
Like and Mohn argue that FERC can condition a
FERC order on “reasonable terms and conditions” as
the public convenience and necessity may require pur-
suant to the NGA. They further argue that because the
FERC order for the project in this matter incorporated
many conditions, some of which have not yet been met,
Transco is not permitted to exercise eminent domain.
However, the NGA does not contain a requirement that
the holder of a FERC certificate satisfy all conditions
of said certificate prior to the exercise of eminent do-
main. Rather, the FERC order specifically stated that
“[o]nce a natural gas company obtains a certificate of
public convenience and necessity, it may exercise the
right of eminent domain in a U.S. District Court or a
state court.” FERC Order, ¶ 67. Courts have repeatedly
rejected similar arguments that a pipeline company
cannot exercise eminent domain because a FERC Or-
der is conditioned. See, e.g., Constitution Pipeline, 2015
WL 12556145, at *2 (rejecting argument that pipeline
company could not exercise eminent domain until it
had obtained certain permits required prior to con-
struction as conditions of the certificate order because
the FERC had not expressly made such permits a con-
dition to exercising eminent domain); Columbia Gas
Transmission, LLC v. 370.393 Acres, 2014 WL 5092880,
at *4 (D. Md. Oct. 9, 2014) (rejecting argument that
pipeline company had failed to comply with certain
conditions listed in the FERC certificate arid finding
App. 50
that claims that a company is not in compliance with

the FERC certificate must be brought to FERC, not the
court); Portland Natural Gas Transmission Sys. v. 4.83
Acres, 26 F.Supp.2d 332, 336 (D.N.H. 1998) (“Compli-
ance with FERC conditions cannot be used as a de-
fense to the right of eminent domain and cannot be
cited to divest the court of the authority to grant im-
mediate entry and possession to the holder of a FERC
certificate); Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co. v. 104 Acres of Land,
749 F.Supp. 427, 433 (D.R.I. 1990) (holding that “re-
quirements in the FERC order arise after ownership of
the rights of way are obtained and do not operate as a
shield against the exercise of eminent domain power”).
Like and Mohn cite Delaware Dept. of Natural Re-
sources and Environmental Control v. FERC, 558 F.3d
575, 579 (D.D.C. 2009), and Ruby Pipeline, L.L.C., 133
FERC ¶ 61015, at 61055 (2010), for the proposition
that Transco cannot condemn the property in question
based on the FERC order because it is “an incipent au-
thorization without force or effect.” However, neither of
these cases supports the landowners’ argument that a
pipeline company cannot exercise eminent domain if
the certificate order contains conditions. Rather, both
Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources and Ruby Pipe-
line address the fact that conditioned certificate orders
do not authorize construction to start.
The FERC certificate in question does, in fact, con-
tain prerequisite conditions, some of which remain un-
met at this time. However, the landowners do not cite
to, nor have I located, any case that holds that
Transco’s exercise of eminent domain is prohibited
App. 51
until the conditions in the FERC certificate are met,

Lacking any such case law, I will not order such an ex-
treme outcome. It is true that there are conditions in
the FERC certificate that Transco will need to meet
prior to commencing actual construction of the pipe-
line, but the fulfillment of these conditions is not a pre-
requisite to Transco’s exercise of eminent domain.
Furthermore, those conditions must be met before any
construction begins.
Like and Mohn also argue that the rights of way
being condemned exceed the scope of the FERC order.
In particular, Like and Mohn take issue with the fact
that the Complaint states Transco seeks to acquire
rights of way that include the right to “alter, repair,
change the size of, replace and remove” the pipeline.
Complaint, ¶1(f ). At oral argument in this matter,
counsel for the landowners indicated a particular con-
cern with the language that allows Transco to “change
the size of ” the pipeline, arguing that this would allow
Transco to expand the pipeline beyond the right of way
authorized by the FERC order. This argument is
clearly incorrect, because the description of the rights
of way in the Complaints in these matters expressly
limits the rights of way being condemned to those
rights “approved by the Order of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission dated February 3, 2017,
Docket No. CP15 138 000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).”
Based upon this description, the rights of way that are
being condemned in this matter are not subject to be-
ing increased in size. However, out of an abudance of
caution, I will limit the rights being sought by Transco
App. 52
in this regard to the right to alter, repair, change but

not increase the size of, replace and remove the
pipeline.
III. MOTIONS FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNC-

TION
A. LEGAL STANDARD
Once Transco has established that it has a sub-
stantive right to condemn the property at issue, a court
“may exercise equitable power to grant the remedy of
immediate possession through the issuance of a pre-
liminary injunction” pursuant to Rule 65 of the Federal
Rules of Civil Procedure. E. Tenn. Natural Gas Co. v.
Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 828 (4th Cir. 2004). A party seeking
a preliminary injunction must prove four factors: 1) a
reasonable probability of success on the merits; 2) ir-
reparable harm to the movant in the absence of relief;
3) granting the preliminary injunction will not result
in greater harm to the nonmoving party; and 4) the
public interest favors granting the injunction. Ameri-
can Exp. Travel Related Services, Inc. v. Sidamon-
Eristoff, 669 F.3d 359, 366 (3d Cir. 2012). In Reilly v.
City of Harrisburg, 858 F.3d 173, 179 (3d Cir. 2017), the
Third Circuit recently clarified the preliminary injunc-
tion standard:
A movant for preliminary equitable relief
must meet the threshold for the first two
“most critical” factors: it must demonstrate
that it can win on the merits (which requires
a showing significantly better than negligible
but not necessarily more likely than not) and
App. 53
that it is more likely than not to suffer irrep-

arable harm in the absence of preliminary re-
lief. If these gateway factors are met, a court
then considers the remaining two factors and
determines in its sound discretion if all four
factors, taken together, balance in favor of
granting the requested preliminary relief.
Reilly, 858 F.3d at 179.
B. DISCUSSION
After analysis of the four factors set forth above
with regard to the five landowners currently before me,
I find that the factors favor the entry of a preliminary
injunction in favor of Transco.
1. Likelihood of Success on the Merits

First, Transco has already succeeded on the mer-
its. A preliminary injunction in a condemnation case is
unlike preliminary injunctions in other types of civil
matters because the plaintiff requests a decision on the
merits of the matter at the same time. As explained by
the Third Circuit:
This is not a “normal” preliminary injunction,
where the merits will await another day. In
those situations, the probability of success is
not a certainty such that weighing the other
factors is paramount. Here, there is no re-
maining merits issue; we have ruled that Co-
lumbia has the right to the easements by
eminent domain. The only issue is the amount
App. 54
of just compensation – which will definitely be

determined on remand, but the result of
which can have no affect [sic] on Columbia’s
rights to the easement.
Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 1.01 Acres, 768
F.3d at 315. Further, all three Pennsylvania district
courts within the Third Circuit have held that the
grant of a preliminary injunction is appropriate when
a FERC certificate holder has established the substan-
tive right to condemn a property, subject to a future
determination of just compensation. Constitution Pipe-
line Company, LLC v. A Permanent Easement for 1.92
Acres, 2015 WL 1219524 at *4 (M.D. Pa. Mar. 17, 2015);
Steckman Ridge, 2008 WL 4346405, at *18; Columbia
Gas Transmission Corp. v. An Easement, 2006 WL
401850, at *3. Therefore, given my determination
above that Transco has the substantive right to con-
demn the properties at issue, the likelihood of success
on the merits has been established. Accordingly, this
factor favors Transco.
2. Irreparable Harm
Second, Transco will suffer irreparable harm if a
preliminary injunction is not granted. In their opposi-
tion to the preliminary injunction, the defendants
make several arguments. They argue that the project
in question is already delayed and will not be com-
pleted in time for the 2017-18 winter heating season,
that the project still has numerous conditions that
need to be satisfied before construction can begin, so
the timeliness of the project does not depend on
App. 55
immediate possession of the properties in question and

that the monetary losses Transco will incur if the pro-
ject is delayed do not constitute irreparable harm.
These arguments are insufficient to defeat the
claims of irreparable harm put forth by Transco. First,
Transco argues that a construction delay itself is irrep-
arable harm and it cannot even begin construction in
Pennsylvania until it has survey access and has satis-
fied relevant pre-construction conditions. Numerous
courts have agreed that construction delays in building
these types of pipelines constitute irreparable harm.
See, e.g., Constitution Pipeline Co. v. A Permanent Ease-
ment for 0.42 Acres, 2015 WL 12556145, at *5 (holding
that pipeline company would be irreparably harmed
without immediate possession because it would be un-
able to begin construction in time to allow the project
to be completed by the in service date); Steckman
Ridge, 2008 WL 436405, at *17 (holding that pipeline
company would be irreparably harmed without imme-
diate possession because it would suffer undue delay
and be in non-compliance with the in service date re-
quired by the FERC Certificate). Admittedly, Transco
has already missed the deadline to have the pipeline
in service by the 2017-18 winter heating season as con-
tained in the Order. (Sztroin testimony, July 17, 2017.)
However, Transco argues that the date the pipeline
will commence operation will continue to be pushed
back if possession is not granted by August 18, 2017.
Mr. Sztroin testified that every delay has a “domino ef-
fect” that delays the entire project further.
App. 56
Further, Mr. Sztroin testified that Transco must

have possession by August 18, 2017 in order to avoid
specific construction delays. According to Mr. Sztroin,
possession is necessary so Transco can complete sur-
veys that are required to satisfy certain pre-construc-
tion conditions. In addition, he testified that
construction is limited in some places by environmen-
tal conditions. In order to complete construction and
ensure compliance with shipper contracts, he testified
that Transco must have possession by August 18, 2017,
to complete the surveys necessary on endangered and
threatened wildlife that can only be done during cer-
tain times each year.
In addition, Transco argues that it will suffer ir-
reparable harm in the manner of monetary loss if a
preliminary injunction is not granted. Transco alleges
that non-possession of the properties at issue here will
cause it to lose $500,000 per month, and will delay rev-
enue of $33,000,000 per month, This argument was
supported by the testimony of Mr. Sztroin. Further,
Sztroin testified about the costs of “move-arounds” in
linear pipeline construction if crews cannot access a
particular property.
I find that Transco has sufficiently proven that it
will suffer irreparable harm if it does not obtain pos-
session of the properties at issue. As recently stated by
the Honorable Matthew W. Brann of the U.S. District
Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, in ad-
dressing different properties located along the same
pipeline project:
App. 57
In sum, the Atlantic Sunrise Project is large

in both scope and geography, spanning five
states. “The magnitude of the Project requires
a complex and coordinated construction pro-
cess, with work activities being performed in
sequential phases.” Sabal Trail Transmission,
LLC v. +/- 0.41 Acres of Land in Hamilton Cty.
Florida, 2016 WL 3188985, at * 3 (M.D. Fla.
June 8, 2016). Each piece of the construction
puzzle depends on the prior piece timely
placed. Untimeliness in one small part of this
enormous project would result in a domino ef-
fect on the timeliness of all other areas of the
project.
Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company, LLC v. Per-
manent Easement for 3.70 Acres, No. 17-CV-628, Mem-
orandum Opinion, ECF no. 27 (M.D. Pa., Aug. 9, 2017).
The irreparable harm factor weighs strongly in favor
of Transco.
3. Harm to the Nonmoving Party

Granting Transco’s preliminary injunction will
not result in greater harm to the landowner, despite
Defendants’ arguments to the contrary. As determined
above, Transco has the substantive right to possession.
Therefore, Transco will eventually obtain possession of
the properties at issue; the only question is the timing
of possession. It is natural for some landowners to
want to delay possession as long as possible, but there
is no legal basis for further delay. As stated by the
Court in Constitution Pipeline Co., 2015 WL 12556145,
at *5, “[a]ny injury to defendant will arise from the
App. 58
[Natural Gas Act] and the FERC Order, and will occur
regardless of whether the Court grants a preliminary
injunction to [the pipeline company]. In the exercise of
its discretion, the Court finds that the harm alleged by
defendants weighs less heavily than the harms alleged
by plaintiff.” Constitution Pipeline Co., 2015 WL
12556145, at *5. “Nothing indicates that the defend-
ants will suffer any greater harm by allowing [the
pipeline company] to possess the property immediately
instead of after trial and the determination of just com-
pensation.” Columbia Gas Transmission LLC v. 0.85
Acres, 2014 WL 4471541, at *7.
Defendants Like and Mohn argue that they face a
risk of harm because the project lacks certain permits
and if their property is taken and the permits are even-
tually denied, they will have lost their property with
no means to recover it. I find this contention to be in-
correct, as the landowners would have legal recourse if
this unlikely event would occur. See USG Pipeline Co.
v. 1.74 Acres, 1 F.Supp.2d 816, 825-26 (E.D. Tenn. 1998)
(granting immediate possession because even if the
FERC Order is overturned by FERC or some other
court with jurisdiction over it, the properties could be
restored substantially to their prior condition and
landowners could seek damages in trespass.) Like and
Mohn also argue that they will be irreparably harmed
because Plaintiff may mobilize its equipment on their
properties and remove trees prior to construction ap-
proval. This argument is unpersuasive, because this
conduct will either occur now or after just compensa-
tion has been determined. I find this alleged harm to
App. 59
be outweighed by Plaintiff ’s risk of harm in not obtain-

ing immediate possession.
Defendant Adorers argue they will suffer harm
that implicates their fundamental rights to free exer-
cise of religion and ownership of property if Transco is
granted immediate possession. Adorers claim that they
“exercise their religious beliefs by, among other things,
coxing for and protecting the land they own,” and that
their efforts to “preserve the sacredness of God’s
Earth” are integral to the practice of their faith. How-
ever, the Adorers have failed to establish how Transco’s
possession of the right of way on their land will in any
way affect their ability to practice their faith and
spread their message. They have not presented one
piece of evidence that demonstrates how their religious
beliefs will be abridged in any way. Clearly, the harm
alleged by Transco outweighs this harm alleged by the
Adorers. Additionally, Transco will post sufficient
bonds upon the grant of the preliminary injunction;
therefore, any amount of money damages any land-
owner may suffer will be secure and a remedy will be
available. Accordingly, this factor weighs in favor of
Transco.
4. Public Interest
Lastly, granting the preliminary injunction is in
the public interest, as the project will provide the gen-
eral public throughout a vast area of the country with
access to the Marcellus Shale natural gas supplies for
heating their homes and other purposes. Defendants
App. 60
Hilltop and Hoffman argue that much of the natural

gas that will be carried by the pipeline is intended for
exportation, and therefore, not in the public interest.
However, this argument is speculative. Hilltop argues
that 87% of the Project’s capacity is currently sub-
scribed to by four gas production companies that will
have direct access to export facilities, but the mere fact
that these companies will have access to export facili-
ties does not mean that they will in fact export the nat-
ural gas out of the country. This argument is too
speculative for me to find that this factor weighs in fa-
vor of the landowners.
“Congress passed the Natural Gas Act and gave
gas companies condemnation power to insure that con-
sumers would have access to an adequate supply of
natural gas at reasonable prices.” E. Tennessee Nat.
Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d at 830, citing Clark v. Gulf Oil
Corp., 570 F.2d 1138, 1145-46 (3d Cir. 1977). Congress
and FERC have found that interstate natural gas pro-
jects, and this project in particular, are in the public
interest. Accordingly, this factor also weighs in favor of
Transco.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, Plaintiff ’s Motions
for Partial Summary Judgment and for Preliminary
Injunction are granted. Plaintiff shall post a bond with
the Clerk of Court for each property in accordance with
the Court’s Order. Appropriate orders will follow.
App. 61

FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT
OF PENNSYLVANIA
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS :
:
PIPE LINE COMPANY, LLC
:
2800 POST OAK BOULEVARD
:
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77251-1396,
:
Plaintiff, : CIVIL ACTION –
v. : LAW
:
PERMANENT EASEMENTS Docket No.
: 5:17-CV-00715
FOR 2.14 ACRES AND TEMPO- :
RARY EASEMENTS FOR 3.59 :
ACRES IN CONESTOGA TOWN- :
SHIP, LANCASTER COUNTY, :
PENNSYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL :
NUMBER 1201606900000, 415 :
HILLTOP DRIVE, CONESTOGA, :
CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA :
HILLTOP HOLLOW :
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP :
203 SIDEHILL TERRACE :
WILLOW STREET, PA 17584 :
:
HILLTOP HOLLOW PARTNER- :
SHIP, LLC GENERAL PARTNER :
OF HILLTOP HOLLOW :
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP :
203 SIDEHILL TERRACE :
WILLOW STREET, PA 17584 :
App. 62
LANCASTER FARMLAND :
TRUST 125 LANCASTER :
AVENUE :
STRASBURG, PA 17579 :
:
AND ALL UNKNOWN
:
OWNERS,
:
Defendants. :
ORDER
AND NOW, this 23rd day of August, 2017, upon
consideration of Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for Pre-
liminary Injunction for Possession of Rights of Way by
August 18, 2017 Pursuant to the Natural Gas Act and
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 71.1 and 65, and the
accompanying documents, Defendants’ opposition
thereto, and Plaintiff ’s Reply, and after a hearing and
oral argument being held, it is hereby ORDERED
that the Motion is GRANTED. It is further OR-
DERED as follows:
(1) Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company,
LLC (“Transco”) has the substantive right to condemn
the following easements and rights of way (collectively
referred to as the “Rights of Way”):
a. Permanent rights of way and easements of
2.14 acres, as described as “Area of Proposed
CPLS R/W #1,” “Area of Proposed CPLS R/W
#2,” and “Area of Proposed CPLS R/W #3” in
Exhibit A attached hereto, for the purpose of
constructing, operating, maintaining, alter-
ing, repairing, changing but not increasing
the size of, replacing and removing a pipeline
App. 63
and all related equipment and appurtenances

thereto (including but not limited to meters,
fittings, tie-overs, valves, cathodic protection
equipment, and launchers and receivers) for
the transportation of natural gas, or its by-
products, and other substances as approved
by the Order of the Federal Energy Regula-
tory Commission dated February 3, 2017,
Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125
(2017), together with the right to construct,
maintain, operate, repair, alter, replace and
remove cathodic protection equipment and
the necessary appurtenances thereto, such as
but not limited to poles, guy wires, anchors,
rectifiers, power lines, cables, deep well anode
and anode ground beds under, upon, and over
the permanent right of way and easement,
and conducting all other activities as ap-
proved by the Order of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission dated February 3,
2017, Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC
¶ 61,125 (2017); together with all rights and
benefits necessary or convenient for the full
enjoyment or use of the right of way and ease-
ment. Further, the landowner shall not build
any permanent structures on said permanent
right of way or any part thereof, will not
change the grade of said permanent right of
way, or any part thereof, will not plant trees
on said permanent right of way, or any part
thereof, or use said permanent right of way or
any part thereof for a road, or use said perma-
nent right of way or any part thereof in such
a way as to interfere with Transco’s immedi-
ate and unimpeded access to said permanent
App. 64
right of way, or otherwise interfere with

Transco’s lawful exercise of any of the rights
herein granted without first having obtained
Transco’s approval in writing; and the land-
owner will not permit others to do any of said
acts without first having obtained Transco’s
approval in writing. Transco shall have the
right from time to time at no additional cost
to landowners to cut and remove all trees in-
cluding trees considered as a growing crop, all
undergrowth and any other obstructions that
may injure, endanger or interfere with the
construction and use of said pipeline and all
related equipment and appurtenances
thereto; and
b. Temporary easements of 3.59 acres, as de-
scribed as “Area of Proposed Temporary Work
Space #1,” “Area of Proposed Temporary Work
Space #2,” Area of Proposed Temporary Work
Space #5,” and “Area of Proposed Temporary
Work Space #6” in Exhibit A attached hereto,
for use during the pipeline construction and
restoration period only for the purpose of in-
gress, egress and regress and to enter upon,
clear off and use for construction and all other
activities approved by the Order of the Fed-
eral Energy Regulatory Commission dated
February 3, 2017, Docket No. CP15-138-000,
158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).
(2) Upon filing the bond required below, begin-
ning August 18, 2017, Transco is granted access to, pos-
session of and entry to the Rights of Way for all
App. 65
purposes allowed under the Order of the Federal En-

ergy Regulatory Commission dated February 3, 2017,
Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
(3) In the event of a violation of this Order by De-
fendants, such as interference with Transco’s posses-
sion of the Rights of Way by Defendants or by third
parties who are authorized by Defendants to be on the
Property, the U. S. Marshal Service, or a law enforce-
ment agency it designates, shall be authorized to in-
vestigate and to arrest, confine in prison and/or bring
before the Court any persons found to be in violation
of this Order and in contempt of this Order, pending
his/her compliance with the Court’s Order.
(4) Transco shall post a bond in the amount of
$70,710.00 as security for the payment of just compen-
sation to Defendants.
(5) Transco shall record this Order in the Office
of the Recorder of Deeds for Lancaster County, Penn-
sylvania.
BY THE COURT
/s/ Jeffrey L. Schmehl
Jeffrey L. Schmehl, J.
App. 66

OF PENNSYLVANIA
:
:
:
:
v. : LAW
:
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR : Docket No.
1.33 ACRES AND TEMPORARY : 5:17-CV-00720
EASEMENTS FOR 2.28 ACRES :
IN CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER COUNTY, PENN- :
SYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL :
NUMBER 1202476100000, :
4160 MAIN STREET, :
CONESTOGA, PA 17516 :
LYNDA LIKE A/K/A LINDA :
LIKE 4160 MAIN STREET :
:
AND ALL UNKNOWN :
OWNERS, :
Defendants. :
ORDER
AND NOW, the 23rd day August, 2017, upon con-
sideration of Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for Prelimi-
nary Injunction for Possession of Rights of Way by
App. 67

accompanying documents, Defendant’s opposition
thereto, and Plaintiff ’s Reply, and after a hearing and
oral argument being held, it is hereby ORDERED
that the Motion is GRANTED. It is further OR-
DERED as follows:
a. A permanent right of way and easement of
CPLS R/W” in Exhibit A attached hereto, for
the purpose of constructing, operating, main-
taining, altering, repairing, changing but not
increasing the size of, replacing and removing
a pipeline and all related equipment and ap-
purtenances thereto (including but not lim-
ited to meters, fittings, tie-overs, valves,
cathodic protection equipment, and launchers
and receivers) for the transportation of natu-
ral gas, or its byproducts, and other sub-
stances as approved by the Order of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
dated February 3, 2017, Docket No. CP15-138-
000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017), together with
a right of way and easement to construct,
maintain, operate, repair, alter, replace, and
App. 68

the permanent access easement, and conduct-
ing all other activities as approved by the Or-
der of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission dated February 3, 2017, Docket
No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
together with all rights and benefits neces-
sary or convenient for the full enjoyment or
use of the right of way and easement. Further,
the landowner shall not build any permanent
structures on said permanent right of way or
any part thereof, will not change the grade of
said permanent right of way, or any part
thereof, will not plant trees on said permanent
right of way, or any part thereof, or use said
permanent right of way or any part thereof for
a road, or use said permanent right of way or
any part thereof in such a way as to interfere
with Transco’s immediate and unimpeded ac-
cess to said permanent right of way, or other-
wise interfere with Transco’s lawful exercise
of any of the rights herein granted without
first having obtained Transco’s approval in
writing; and the landowner will not permit
others to do any of said acts without first hav-
ing obtained Transco’s approval in writing.
Transco shall have the right from time to time
at no additional cost to landowners to cut and
remove all trees including trees considered as
a growing crop, all undergrowth and any other
obstructions that may injure, endanger or in-
terfere with the construction and use of said
pipeline and all related equipment and appur-
tenances thereto; and
App. 69

Space #1” and “Area of Proposed Temporary
158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).
Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
App. 70

sylvania.
BY THE COURT
App. 71

OF PENNSYLVANIA
:
:
:
:
v. : LAW
:
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR Docket No.
: 5:17-CV-00722
0.94 ACRES AND TEMPORARY :
IN CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER COUNTY, PENN- :
SYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL :
NUMBER 1203589400000, :
SICKMAN MILL ROAD :
BLAIR B. MOHN AND MEGAN :
E. MOHN 356 SAND HILL ROAD :
:
AND ALL UNKNOWN :
OWNERS, :
Defendants. :
ORDER
consideration of Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for Pre-
liminary Injunction for Possession of Rights of Way by
App. 72

accompanying documents, Defendants’ opposition
thereto, Plaintiff ’s Reply, and after a hearing and oral
argument being held, it is hereby ORDERED that the
Motion is GRANTED. It is further ORDERED as fol-
lows:
the right to construct, maintain, operate, re-
pair, alter, replace and remove cathodic pro-
tection equipment and the necessary
appurtenances thereto, such as but not lim-
ited to poles, guy wires, anchors, rectifiers,
power lines, cables, deep well anode and an-
ode ground beds under, upon, and over the
App. 73
permanent right of way and easement, and

conducting all other activities as approved by
the Order of the Federal Energy Regulatory
No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
App. 74

158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).
Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
App. 75

sylvania.
BY THE COURT
App. 76

OF PENNSYLVANIA
:
:
:
:
v. : LAW
:
PERMANENT EASEMENT FOR Docket No.
: 5:17-CV-00723
2.02 ACRES AND TEMPORARY :
IN MANOR TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER COUNTY, :
PENNSYLVANIA, TAX PARCEL :
NUMBER 4100300500000, :
3049 SAFE HARBOR ROAD, :
MANOR TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER, PA 17551 :
STEPHEN D. HOFFMAN :
3049 SAFE HARBOR ROAD :
MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551 :
:
AND ALL UNKNOWN :
OWNERS, :
Defendants. :
ORDER
consideration of Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for
App. 77
Preliminary Injunction for Possession of Rights of Way

by August 18, 2017 Pursuant to the Natural Gas Act
and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 71.1 and 65, and
the accompanying documents, Defendant’s opposition
thereto, Plaintiff ’s Reply, and after a hearing and oral
argument being held, it is hereby ORDERED that the
Motion is GRANTED. It is further ORDERED as fol-
lows:
a right of way and easement to, construct,
App. 78

ing all other activities as approved by the Or-
der of the Federal Energy Regulatory
No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
App. 79

158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).
Docket No. CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017);
App. 80

sylvania.
BY THE COURT
App. 81
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
PIPE LINE COMPANY, LLC, :
Plaintiff, :
:
v. : No. 5:17-cv-00715
PERMANENT EASEMENTS :
FOR 2.14 ACRES AND :
TEMPORARY EASEMENTS :
FOR 3.59 ACRES IN :
CONESTOGA TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER COUNTY, :
PENNSYLVANIA; HILLTOP :
HOLLOW LIMITED :
PARTNERSHIP; HILLTOP :
HOLLOW PARTNERSHIP, :
LLC GENERAL PARTNER :
OF HILLTOP HOLLOW :
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; :
and LANCASTER :
FARMLAND TRUST, :
:
Defendants.
App. 82
PIPE LINE COMPANY, LLC, :
Plaintiff, :
:
v. : No. 5:17-cv-00723
PERMANENT EASEMENT :
TEMPORARY EASEMENTS :
FOR 2.76 ACRES IN MANOR :
TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER :
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA; :
and STEPHEN HOFFMAN, :
:
Defendants.
OPINION
Plaintiff ’s Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction – Denied
Joseph F. Leeson, Jr. April 6, 2017
United States District Judge
I. Introduction
Plaintiff Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Company,
LLC (“Transco”) is involved in a project to operate and
construct a natural gas pipeline running through five
states, including a portion of Lancaster County, Penn-
sylvania. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) issued a certificate on February 3, 2017, au-
thorizing the construction and operation of the pipe-
line. Transco thereafter filed fourteen complaints in
condemnation in this Court seeking to acquire the
rights-of-way on Defendants’ properties. Presently
pending in two of these actions is Transco’s Omnibus
App. 83
Motion for Preliminary Injunction. For the reasons set

forth below, a determination as to whether Transco has
a right to condemn, which must be established before
the Court may grant injunctive relief, would be prem-
ature. Regardless, Transco has failed to show that it
will suffer irreparable harm because it may obtain ac-
cess to Defendants’ property to conduct surveys pursu-
ant to 26 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 309. The Omnibus Motion
for Preliminary Injunction is denied, but Transco will
be granted limited access pursuant to § 309.
II. Legal Standard – Motion for Preliminary

Injunction
To prevail on a motion for a preliminary injunc-
tion, the moving party must show: (1) a likelihood of
success on the merits;1 (2) a likelihood of suffering
irreparable harm without the injunction;2 (3) the
1
For a natural gas company “to establish a right to condemn,
the following elements must be proved: (1) [the company] has
been issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity;
(2) [the company] has been unable to acquire the needed land by
contract with the Defendants; and (3) [t]he value of the subject
property claimed by the owner exceeds $ 3,000.00.” Steckman
Ridge GP, LLC v. Exclusive Nat. Gas Storage Easement Beneath
11.078 Acres, No. 08-168, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71302, at *39-40
(W.D. Pa. Sept. 19, 2008) (citing 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h) of the Natu-
ral Gas Act of 1938 (NGA)).
2
“[O]f critical importance, ‘the irreparable harm require-
ment contemplates the inadequacy of alternate remedies availa-
ble to the plaintiff.’ ” Contech Casting, LLC v. ZF Steering Sys.,
LLC, 931 F. Supp. 2d 809, 818 (E.D. Mich. 2013) (quoting Smith
& Nephew, Inc. v. Synthes (U.S.A.), 466 F. Supp. 2d 978, 982
(W.D. Tenn. 2006)). “[I]rreparable harm is not demonstrated
when there are available alternatives even when the alternatives
App. 84
balance of equities weighs in the moving party’s favor;

and (4) the public interest favors the injunction. Winter
v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc., 555 U.S. 7, 20 (2008).
The moving party bears the burden of showing that
each of these four factors tips in its favor. Ferring
Pharm., Inc. v. Watson Pharm., Inc., 765 F.3d 205, 210
(3d Cir. 2014) (“The ‘failure to establish any element
. . . renders a preliminary injunction inappropriate.’ ”
(quoting NutraSweet Co. v. Vit-Mar Enters., Inc., 176
F.3d 151, 153 (3d Cir. 1999))). “A preliminary injunc-
tion is an extraordinary remedy never awarded as a
matter of right,” Winter, 555 U.S. at 24, and is reserved
for “limited circumstances,” Kos Pharm., Inc. v. Andrx
Corp. 369 F.3d 700, 708 (3d Cir. 2004).
III. Findings of Fact3

“In granting or refusing an interlocutory injunc-
tion, the court must . . . state the findings and conclu-
sions that support its action,” Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a)(2),
which requires the court to “find the facts specially and
state its conclusions of law separately,” Fed. R. Civ. P.
52(a)(1). While “Rule 52 does not require hyper-literal
adherence,” findings of fact and conclusions of law
are less convenient.” Corbett v. United States, No. 10-14106, 2011

U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38531, at *14 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 1, 2011).
3
These findings of fact, which are made after an independent
review of the record, including all exhibits and briefs filed in re-
gard to the Omnibus Motion for Preliminary Injunction, are
drawn from the two sides’ proposed findings of fact and conclu-
sions of law. See No. 17-715, ECF Nos. 25, 28; No. 17-723, ECF
Nos. 18, 21.
App. 85
must be delineated in such a manner that does not

leave an appellate court “unable to discern what were
[the court’s] intended factual findings.” See In re Fres-
cati Shipping Co., 718 F.3d 184, 197 (3d Cir. 2013); see
also 9C Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Fed-
eral Practice and Procedure § 2579 (3d ed. 2008) (“The
district court should state separately its findings of
fact and conclusions of law without commingling
them. . . .”). Accordingly, this Court’s findings of facts
pertinent to the disposition of Transco’s Motion fol-
lows.
1. Transco is an interstate natural gas transmis-
sion company that will be the operator of a proposed
natural gas pipeline that will cross Defendants’ respec-
tive properties. Sztroin Decl. ¶¶ 3, 6, ECF No. 6-6 (No.
17-715); Hoffman Aff. ¶¶ 5-7, 11, ECF No. 23 (No. 17-
723); Erb Aff. ¶¶ 6-7, ECF No. 30 (No. 17-715); Trans-
continental Gas Pipe Line Co., 158 FERC ¶ 61,125
(Feb. 3, 2017) (hereinafter FERC Order).
2. Defendants Stephen and Dorothea Hoffman
reside at 3409 Safe Harbor Road, Manor Twp., Mil-
lersville, Lancaster County, PA 19551. They own ap-
proximately 110 acres and have lived there for
approximately 10 years. Hoffman Aff. ¶ 2.
3. The appraised value of the Hoffmans’ property
is $13,970. Pl.’s Hr’g Ex. 17.4
4
Plaintiff submitted additional exhibits in support of the
Omnibus Motions for Preliminary Injunction at the hearing on
March 20, 2017.
App. 86
4. Defendants Gary and Michelle Erb, the prin-

cipals of Defendant Hilltop Hollow Limited Partner-
ship, live at 415 Hilltop Rd., Conestoga Twp.,
Conestoga, Lancaster County, PA 17516. They own
about 72 acres and have lived there for approximately
seven years. The Erbs’ property is also enrolled in the
Lancaster Farmland Trust. Erb Aff. ¶ 2.
5. The appraised value of the property on Hilltop
Road is $23,570. Pl.’s Hr’g Ex. 17.
6. Transco’s proposed current route for the pipe-
line crosses both aforementioned properties, running
close to their homes. Hoffman Aff. ¶¶ 5-7, 11; Erb Aff.
¶¶ 6-7; FERC Order.
7. In 2015, Transco submitted an application un-
der section 7(c) of the NGA, seeking a certificate of pub-
lic convenience and necessity authorizing Transco to
construct and operate the pipeline project. FERC Or-
der.
8. The project involves approximately 199.5 miles
of pipeline running through Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Sztroin
Decl. ¶¶ 3, 6.
9. FERC issued a certificate on February 3, 2017,
authorizing the construction and operation of this
pipeline. FERC Order.5
5
For the reasons discussed below, this Court offers no opin-
ion, at this time, as to the validity of this certificate in light of
Defendants’ due process challenges.
App. 87
10. Transco entered into a contract with its ship-

pers that requires the project be completed and in ser-
vice for the 2017-2018 winter heating season, or as
soon as commercially practicable thereafter. Sztroin
Aff. ¶ 10, ECF No. 7-4 (No. 17-715).6
11. Between February 15, 2017, and March 7,
2017, Transco filed multiple condemnation complaints
in this Court, claiming immediate entitlement to
rights-of-way across the properties based on the FERC
Order. See Nos. 5:17-cv-711 to -723 (E.D. Pa. filed Feb.
15, 2017); No. 5:17-cv-1010 (E.D. Pa. filed Mar. 7, 2017).
12. Between February 20, 2017, and February
22, 2017, Transco filed an Omnibus Motion for Prelim-
inary Injunction, seeking injunctive relief granting
Transco immediate possession of the rights-of-way in
each case.
13. Transco alleges that in order to complete the
pipeline project on time, it must have survey access to
the properties by March 20, 2017. Sztroin Aff. ¶ 12.
14. The FERC Order imposes environmental
conditions on the project, at least twelve of which re-
quire access to the rights-of-way to conduct field sur-
veys and the submission of additional documentation
to FERC based on the results of the surveys. Sztroin
Aff. ¶¶ 14-16.
6
To avoid confusion between the Declaration of Sztroin at-
tached to the Motion for Summary Judgment (“Sztroin Decl.”)
from the Declaration attached to the Omnibus Motion for Prelim-
inary Injunction, this Court will refer to the later as “Sztroin Aff.”
App. 88
15. There are limited, seasonal windows of time

during which certain surveys, such as threatened and
endangered species surveys, may occur. Sztroin Aff.
¶ 17.
16. If Transco misses those windows, it may have
to wait until the following year to complete the sur-
veys. Sztroin Aff. ¶ 17.
17. Some of these surveys have taken an average
of two to three months to complete. Sztroin Aff. ¶ 17.
18. Transco alleges that if the project is delayed
it will suffer approximately $500,000 in additional
costs each month, may lose up to $1.1 million in reve-
nues each day, and will lose customer confidence if un-
able to provide service to its shippers by the promised
date. Sztroin Aff. ¶¶ 33-35.
19. Between February 20, 2017, and March 17,
2017, Transco filed a Motion for Partial Summary
Judgment in all pending cases, seeking orders of con-
demnation pursuant to the NGA to provide Transco
with the substantive right to condemn the rights-of-
way sought on the properties in the FERC Order.
20. The motions for partial summary judgment,
although filed separately in each case, are almost iden-
tical and are based on substantially the same facts.
21. Transco entered into stipulations with De-
fendants in eight cases to grant Transco access to and
entry upon the rights-of-way of their properties for the
sole purpose of conducting the surveys required by the
FERC Order. See, e.g., ECF No. 27 (No. 17-711).
App. 89
22. Pursuant to the stipulations, Transco agreed

to withdraw its Omnibus Motion for Preliminary In-
junction in those cases.
23. Transco also agreed in the stipulations in
four of the cases to extend the time for Defendants to
respond to the motions for partial summary judgment
until April 15, 2017. See, e.g., ECF No. 16 (No. 17-714).
24. Defendants in the above-captioned cases
have opposed the Complaints, the Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction, and the motions for partial
summary judgment, raising complex questions of con-
stitutional law regarding the FERC Order and pro-
ceedings.
25. On March 16, 2017, Transco’s cases were re-
assigned to the Undersigned.
26. A hearing on the Omnibus Motion for Prelim-
inary Injunction was held on March 20, 2017.
IV. Conclusions of Law

In the NGA, Congress granted condemnation
power to private corporations. See E. Tenn. Nat’l Gas
Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 821-25 (4th Cir. 2004) (citing
15 U.S.C. § 717f(h)). The general procedure in such
cases is that a gas company applies for a certificate of
public convenience and necessity from FERC to build
and operate a new pipeline. Id. at 818-19. Once a cer-
tificate is issued, the NGA empowers the company to
exercise the right of eminent domain to acquire the
lands needed for the project. Id. The company usually
App. 90
enters negotiations with landowners to acquire their

property, but if these negotiations are unsuccessful,
the company may institute condemnation proceedings,
asking the court to enter an order of condemnation de-
claring that the company has the substantive right to
condemn the property in the FERC certificate. See
Kirby Forest Indus. v. United States, 467 U.S. 1, 3-6
(1984); E. Tenn. Nat’l Gas Co., 361 F.3d at 820-25.
A condemnation action can take three paths: (1)
straight condemnation, (2) quick-take, and (3) legisla-
tive taking. Id. In a straight condemnation action, the
plaintiff (gas company) files a complaint setting forth
its authority for the taking, the use for which the prop-
erty is being taken, a description identifying the prop-
erty, the interest to be acquired, and a designation of
the owners. Id. The court determines how much com-
pensation is due to the landowner and once that
amount is tendered, the right to possession passes. Id.
The second method of taking provides the government
with a more expeditious procedure, requiring the filing
of a declaration of taking that sets forth the authority
for the taking, the public use for which the land is
taken, and an estimate of just compensation. Id. Once
the estimated amount is deposited with the court, the
government is authorized to take immediate posses-
sion of the condemned property. Id. Finally, a legisla-
tive taking occurs when Congress exercises the power
of eminent domain directly by, for example, enacting a
statute. Id.
Here, Transco followed the first path by filing
condemnation complaints pursuant to the NGA and
App. 91
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 71.1. However, in its

motions for partial summary judgment, Transco seeks
an order of condemnation declaring that it has the sub-
stantive right to condemn. The Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction then asks the Court to grant
Transco immediate possession prior to a determina-
tion of just compensation. This is not an avenue recog-
nized by the NGA. See E. Tenn. Nat’l Gas Co, 361 F.3d
at 822-23 (concluding that the NGA “contains no pro-
vision for quick-take or immediate possession”).
Nevertheless, once Transco has established its
right to condemn, the Court may use its equitable
power to award preliminary injunctive relief. See Id.
(holding that a court has the power to grant equitable
relief after the gas company establishes a substantive
right to condemn). Until it is determined that Transco
has the authority to condemn Defendants’ property,
however, this Court is without jurisdiction to grant
Transco’s Omnibus Motion for Preliminary Injunction.
See Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 1.01 Acres,
More or Less, 768 F.3d 300, 308 (3d Cir. 2014) (explain-
ing that once it is determined that a gas company has
the right to eminent domain over the property sought
from the landowners, the court will conduct a prelimi-
nary injunction analysis); Mid-Atlantic Express, LLC v.
Balt. Cty., 410 F. App’x 653, 657 (4th Cir. 2011) (holding
that because the company did not have the authority
to condemn the property, “the district court was with-
out jurisdiction to enter the preliminary injunction”);
Transwestern Pipeline Co., LLC v. 17.19 Acres, 550 F.3d
770, 776 (9th Cir. 2008) (holding that “a district court
App. 92
lacks authority to grant a preliminary injunction un-

der Rule 65 if the party does not have a substantive
right to the injunction” and that the gas company’s
“substantive right to condemn the affected parcels ac-
crues only through the issuance of an order of condem-
nation by the district court”); E. Tenn. Nat’l Gas Co,
361 F.3d at 823 (concluding that a “federal court has
the power to grant equitable relief, but this power is
circumscribed by the venerable principle that ‘equity
follows the law’ ” (citations omitted)).
A decision on Transco’s substantive right to relief
is premature. Although Transco’s Partial Motion for
Summary Judgment and Omnibus Motion for Prelim-
inary Injunction are fully briefed and ripe for disposi-
tion in the two above-captioned cases, the summary
judgment motions are not ripe7 in four other related
cases because Transco granted those Defendants addi-
tional time to prepare their responses. Transco’s mo-
tions in all these cases are substantially identical, and
any decision by this Court addressing the validity of
the FERC Order, which is the first step in determining
whether Transco has a substantive right to condemn
any of the properties, will therefore likely apply to all
the pending cases. Because the Court has not had the
benefit of reviewing briefs from Defendants in all the
related cases, there is the possibility of inconsistent de-
cisions. This delay is of Transco’s own making as it
7
See Cluck-U Corp. v. Docson Consulting, LLC, No. 1:11-CV-
1295, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96638, at *2 n.1 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 29,
2011) (explaining that a motion is not ripe for review until the
nonmoving party has had an opportunity to file a brief ).
App. 93
stipulated to the extension of time for Defendants to

respond in the other cases. Consequently, this Court
will not render a decision on Transco’s substantive
right to condemn at this time.8
The fact that the validity of the FERC Order
raises difficult questions of constitutional law further
counsels against resolving this issue definitively in the
rushed atmosphere of a request for immediate injunc-
tive relief, without full briefing from all interested
parties. See Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem-
Knights of Malta v. Messineo, 572 F. Supp. 983, 990
(E.D. Pa. 1983) (holding that the existence of difficult
legal questions of law may create sufficient doubt
about the probability of plaintiff ’s success to justify
denying a preliminary injunction); La Chemise Lacoste
v. General Mills, Inc., 53 F.R.D. 596, 605 (D. Del. 1971)
(“A Court should not decide doubtful and difficult
questions on a motion for a preliminary injunction.”);
Coffee Dan’s, Inc. v. Coffee Don’s Charcoal Broiler, 305
F. Supp. 1210, 1213 (N.D. Cal. 1969) (“On an applica-
tion for a preliminary injunction the court is not bound
to decide doubtful and difficult questions of law or dis-
puted questions of fact.”).
Moreover, even if Transco has a right to condemn,
it has not shown that it will be irreparably harmed be-
cause it has an alternative remedy to obtain the imme-
diate relief it needs. See McHenry v. Comm’r of Internal
Revenue, No. 1:10-cv-00021, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
8
“This time” amounts to a matter of weeks, as the summary
judgment motions should be fully briefed by the end of April.
App. 94
77977, at *8 (D.V.I. 2011) (“[T]he availability of an

adequate alternative remedy generally precludes a
finding of irreparable harm sufficient to warrant
injunctive relief.”); Curtis 1000 v. Youngblade, 878
F. Supp. 1224, 1248 (N.D. Iowa 1995) (“Irreparable
harm will not be found where alternatives already
available to the plaintiff make an injunction unneces-
sary.”). By withdrawing its Omnibus Motion for Pre-
liminary Injunction in those cases in which it entered
into stipulations with the landowners to obtain access
to the properties to conduct surveys, Transco has es-
sentially conceded that it will not suffer irreparable
harm if granted survey access.9 Pennsylvania law
9
Notably too, Transco’s claimed irreparable harm is in the
nature of additional costs, diminished revenues, and loss in cus-
tomer confidence, all of which are not the types of harms that usu-
ally suffice for an injunction to issue. See Checker Cab of Phila.
Inc. v. Uber Techs., Inc., 643 F. App’x 229, 232 (3d Cir. 2016) (con-
cluding that the plaintiff failed to show that it was entitled to a
preliminary injunction because the only harm alleged “is the loss
of customers,” which “is a purely economic harm that can be ade-
quately compensated with a monetary award following adjudica-
tion on the merits”). Further, Transco’s alleged additional costs
and loss in customer confidence with its shippers if unable to com-
plete the project on time appears to be a self-inflicted harm be-
cause Transco entered into this contract with suppliers before
knowing whether it would need to initiate formal condemnation
proceedings. These alleged harms may have been avoidable. See
Caplan v. Fellheimer Eichen Braverman & Kaskey, 68 F.3d 828,
839 (3d Cir. 1995) (“If the harm complained of is self-inflicted, it
does not qualify as irreparable.” (citing 11A Charles A. Wright,
Federal Practice & Procedure § 2948.1 pp. 152-53 (1995)); San
Francisco Real Estate Investors v. Real Estate Inv. Trust, 692 F.2d
814, 818 (1st Cir. 1982) (concluding that the alleged harm caused
by investor apprehension over the litigation was largely “self-
inflicted” and “entirely avoidable”).
App. 95
provides a procedure for which Transco can obtain sur-

vey access. See 26 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 309 (providing that,
upon notice to the landowner, “the condemnor or its
employees or agents shall have the right to enter upon
any land or improvement in order to make studies, sur-
veys, tests, soundings and appraisals”). Consequently,
Transco’s Omnibus Motion for Preliminary Injunction
is denied.
Although Transco sought injunctive relief under
the NGA, this Court will grant Transco limited survey
access to the properties pursuant to § 309. In applying
§ 309, this Court recognizes the potential conflict be-
tween the conformity clause in the NGA, which can be
found at 15 U.S.C. § 717f(h),10 and Rule 71.1(a) of the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.11 The conformity
clause was repealed by Rule 71.1, but only insofar as it
required federal courts to conform state procedures to
secure a condemnation. See United States v. 93.970
Acres, 360 U.S. 328, 333 n.7 (1959); Guardian Pipeline,
10
Section 717f (h) provides in part that “[t]he practice and
procedure in any action or proceeding [to exercise the right of em-
inent domain] in the district court of the United States shall con-
form as nearly as may be with the practice and procedure in
similar action or proceeding in the courts of the State where the
property is situated.”
11
Rule 71.1(a) provides: “[t]hese rules govern proceedings to
condemn real and personal property by eminent domain, except
as this rule provides otherwise.” “The purpose of Rule [71.1] is to
provide a uniform procedure for condemnation in the federal dis-
trict courts.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 71.1 advisory committee’s note (“Rule
71[.1] affords a uniform procedure for all cases of condemnation
invoking the national power of eminent domain . . . and supplants
all statutes prescribing a different procedure.”).
App. 96
L.L.C. v. 295.49 Acres of Land, more or less, 2008 U.S.

Dist. LEXIS 35818, at *43-44 (E.D. Wis. Apr. 11, 2008)
(concluding that because Rule 71.1 addressed the sub-
ject of condemnation procedure, the conformity clause
in the Natural Gas Act was preempted and does not
apply to any state mandated procedures). Section 309,
however, does not deal with the steps that must be fol-
lowed to secure a condemnation and its use in a federal
condemnation proceeding is therefore not prohibited
by Rule 71.1, nor does it conflict with Rule 71.1.
Congress has prescribed that “[a]ll laws in conflict
with [the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure] shall be of
no further force or effect after such rules have taken
effect.” 28 U.S.C. § 2072(b). However, “there is no fed-
eral law that deals specifically with entries to survey
property, so there is nothing to preempt state law in
such a proceeding.” Alliance Pipeline L.P. v. 4.360 Acres
of Land, 746 F.3d 362, 367 (8th Cir. 2014); Sabal Trail
Transmission, LLC v. 72 Acres of Land, No: 5:16-cv-
162, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62857, at *6 (M.D. Fla. May
12, 2016) (concluding that “federal law does not pro-
vide a right to survey, so there exists no conflict be-
tween state law and federal law”). Although some
courts have been of the belief that Rule 71.1 prohibits
the federal courts from applying any state laws in the
area of eminent domain, see, e.g. Tenn. Gas Pipeline Co.
v. Garrison, No. 3:10-CV-1845, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
94422, at *7-8 (M.D. Pa. Sept. 10, 2010) (concluding
that because the plaintiff filed for condemnation under
the NGA that it could not use Pennsylvania’s Eminent
App. 97
Domain Code to gain pre-condemnation access to the

land), “the NGA certainly does not operate to com-
pletely preempt state eminent domain law,” Bowyer v.
Rover Pipeline, LLC, No. 1:16CV203, 2017 U.S. Dist.
LEXIS 8892, at *8 (N.D. W. Va. Jan. 23, 2017) (explain-
ing that the NGA only “preempts state law when the
two are in conflict”).
V. Conclusion
Considering that the same Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction, which is the subject of the in-
stant opinion, was filed by Transco in twelve related
actions, along with substantially identical motions for
partial summary judgment, four of which are not yet
ripe in light of the stipulated extensions of time en-
tered into between those Defendants and Transco, this
Court will not render a decision on Transco’s right to
condemn at this time. Regardless, Transco has failed
to show that it will suffer irreparable harm if not
granted injunctive relief because it has an alternative
remedy under Pennsylvania law to obtain the survey
access it needs. Accordingly, the Omnibus Motion for
Preliminary Injunction is denied, but, pursuant to
§ 309, Transco is granted access to and entry upon the
rights-of-way, as defined in the respective complaints,
for the sole purpose of conducting surveys required un-
der the FERC Order.
App. 98
Appropriate orders will follow.

BY THE COURT:
/s/ Joseph F. Leeson, Jr.
JOSEPH F. LEESON, JR.
United States District Judge
App. 99
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Nos. 17-3075, 17-3076, 17-3115 & 17-3116

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCONTINENTAL GAS PIPE LINE CO, LLC

v.
PERMANENT EASEMENTS FOR 2.14 ACRES AND
1201606900000; ET AL.
Hilltop Hollow Limited Partnership & Hilltop Hollow
Partnership, LLC; Stephen D. Hoffman; Lynda Like;
Blair B. Mohn and Megan E. Mohn,
Appellants
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(E.D. Pa. Nos. 17-cv-00715, 17-cv-00723,

17-cv-00720 & 17-cv-00722)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUR PETITION FOR REHEARING

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Present: SMITH, Chief Judge, MCKEE, CHAGARES,

JORDAN, HARDIMAN, GREENAWAY, JR., SHWARTZ,
App. 100
KRAUSE, RESTREPO, BIBAS, PORTER, *ROTH, and

*FISHER, Circuit Judges
The petition for rehearing filed by appellants in
the above-entitled case having been submitted to the
judges who participated in the decision of this Court
and to all the other available circuit judges of the cir-
cuit in regular active service, and no judge who con-
curred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and
a majority of the judges of the circuit in regular service
not having voted for rehearing, the petition for rehear-
ing by the panel and the Court en banc, is denied.
BY THE COURT,
s/ JANE R. ROTH
Circuit Judge
Dated: December 13, 2018
PDB/cc: All Counsel of Record
* Votes of the Honorable Jane R. Roth and D. Michael Fisher

are limited to panel rehearing only.
App. 101
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR

THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
SAUL EWING LLP Attorneys for Plaintiff

Elizabeth U. Witmer, Esq. Transcontinental Gas
(55808) Pipe Line Company, LLC
Sean T. O’Neill, Esq. (205595)
1200 Liberty Ridge Drive,
Suite 200
Wayne, PA 19087-5569
:
:
:
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77251-
:
1396,
:
v. : LAW
:
PERMANENT EASEMENT Docket No. _____
:
TEMPORARY EASEMENT; :
FOR 2,76 ACRES IN MANOR :
TOWNSHIP LANCASTER :
COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, :
TAX PARCEL NUMBER :
4100300500000, :
3049 SAFE HARBOR ROAD, :
MANOR TOWNSHIP, :
LANCASTER, PA 17551 :
App. 102
STEPHEN D. HOFFMAN :
3049 SAFE HARBOR ROAD :
MILLERSVILLE, PA 17551 :
:
AND ALL UNKNOWN
:
OWNERS
:
Defendants. :
VERIFIED COMPLAINT IN
CONDEMNATION OF PROPERTY
PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 71.1
Plaintiff, Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Com-
pany, LLC, for its causes of action against Defendants,
Permanent Easement for 2.02 Acres and Temporary
Easements for 2.76 Acres in Manor Township, Lancas-
ter County, Pennsylvania, Tax Parcel Number
4100300500000, Stephen D. Hoffman, and All Un-
known Owners, states as follows:
1. The following definitions are used in this Com-
plaint:
a) “Transco” shall mean Transcontinental
Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC, a Delaware limited lia-
bility company with a principal place of business at
2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77251-1396.
b) “FERC” shall mean the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission.
c) “FERC Order” shall mean the Order is-
sued by the FERC on February 3, 2017, Docket No.
CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017), authorizing
App. 103
the Atlantic Sunrise Project and granting Transco a

certificate of public convenience and necessity.1
d) “Project” shall mean the Atlantic Sun-
rise Project which was reviewed and approved by the
FERC by its issuance of the FERC Order.
e) “Property” shall mean:
That property in Manor Township, Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, described in the Deed dated
April 18, 2006, recorded in the Office of the Recorder of
Deeds of Lancaster County at Instrument Number
5519364, and known as Tax Parcel Number
4100300500000.
f) “Rights of Way” shall mean the following
easements and rights of way on the Property that are
necessary to install and construct the Project:
i. A permanent right of way and easement of
CPLS R/W” in Exhibit A to the Verified
Complaint, for the purpose of constructing,
operating, maintaining, altering, repairing,
changing the size of, replacing and removing
1
The FERC Order is a matter of public record that is subject
to judicial notice under Fed. R. Evid. 201. A true and correct copy
of the relevant excerpts of the FERC Order will be attached as
Exhibit A to Transco’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment.
The full FERC Order is available at https://www.ferc.gov/Calendar
Files/20170203163124-CP15-138-000.pdf.
App. 104

a right of way and easement to construct,
ing all other activities as approved by the
Order of the Federal Energy Regulatory Com-
mission dated February 3, 2017, Docket No.
CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017); to-
gether with all rights and benefits necessary
or convenient for the full enjoyment or use of
the right of way and easement. Further, the
landowner shall not build any permanent
App. 105

ii. Temporary easements of 2.76 acres, as de-
Work Space #2” in Exhibit A to the Verified
Complaint, for use during the pipeline con-
struction and restoration period only for the
purpose of ingress, egress and regress and to
enter upon, clear off and use for construction
and all other activities approved by the Order
of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commis-
sion dated February 3, 2017, Docket No.
CP15-138-000, 158 FERC ¶ 61,125 (2017).
g) “Appraised Value” shall mean the fair
market value of the Rights of Way sought to be con-
demned, as set forth in an appraisal prepared by an
independent appraiser retained by Transco. The ap-
praisal values the Rights of Way sought to be con-
demned at $13,970.00.
h) “Landowner” shall mean Stephen D.
Hoffman, the owner of the Property on which Transco
App. 106
is seeking to acquire the Rights of Way; the Landowner

is an individual residing at 3049 Safe Harbor Road,
Millersville, PA 17551.
i) “Interest Holders”2 shall mean; None
known.
j) “Defendants” shall collectively refer to
the Landowner, Interest Holders, and any Unknown
Owners.
PARTIES, JURISDICTION AND VENUE

2. Transco is the Plaintiff and will be the opera-
tor of the proposed pipeline facilities being constructed
and modified in connection with the Project.
3. Defendants are the Landowner, Interest Hold-
ers, and all Unknown Owners of the Property on which
Transco is seeking to acquire the Rights of Way.
4. This is a civil action brought under Federal
Rule of Civil Procedure 71.1 by Transco for the taking
of the Rights of Way on the Property that are necessary
to install and construct pipeline facilities as part of the
Project.
5. Transco’s authority to maintain the action in
this Court derives from the Natural Gas Act, 15
2
Transco has not yet verified the identity, property interest
and service address of any persons that may hold a mortgage, lien
or judgment of record against the Property. In accordance with
Fed. R. Civ. P. 71.1(c)(3) and 71.1(f), Transco will amend its Com-
plaint to name any such interest holders prior to any hearing on
compensation.
App. 107
U.S.C.A. §§ 717a, et seq. (the “Natural Gas Act”). Sec-

tion 717f(h) states in relevant part:
When any holder of a certificate of public
convenience and necessity cannot ac-
quire by contract, or is unable to agree
with the owner of property to the com-
pensation to be paid for, the necessary
right-of-way to construct, operate, and
maintain a pipe line or pipe lines for the
transportation of natural gas, and the
necessary land or other property, in ad-
dition to right-of-way, for the location of
compressor stations, pressure appa-
ratus, or other stations or equipment
necessary to the proper operation of
such pipe line or pipe lines, it may ac-
quire the same by the exercise of the
right of eminent domain in the district
court of the United States for the district
in which such property may be located,
or in the State courts. The practice and proce-
dure in any action or proceeding for that pur-
pose in the district court of the United States
shall conform as nearly as may be with the
practice and procedure in similar action or
proceeding in the courts of the State where
the property is situated: Provided, that the
United States district courts shall only have
jurisdiction of cases when the amount claimed
by the owner of the property to be condemned
exceeds $3,000.
15 U.S.C.A. § 717f(h) (emphasis added).
App. 108
6. Venue is appropriate in the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania because the Property is located in Lan-
caster County, within the District.
7. On February 3, 2017, the FERC issued the
FERC Order to Transco approving the Project, author-
izing Transco to construct and operate approximately
199.5 miles of pipeline composed of (a) Central Penn
Line North, which is 58.7 miles of 30-inch diameter
natural gas pipeline running from Columbia County,
Pennsylvania to Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania;
(b) Central Penn Line South, which is 127.3 miles of
new 42-inch diameter natural gas pipeline running
from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Columbia
County, Pennsylvania; (c) Chapman Loop, which is 2.5
miles of new 36-inch diameter pipeline looping in Clin-
ton County, Pennsylvania; (d) Unity Loop, which is 8.5
miles of new 42-inch diameter pipeline looping in Ly-
coming County, Pennsylvania; and (e) replacement of
2.5 miles of 30-inch diameter pipeline in Prince Wil-
liam County, Virginia; together with associated appur-
tenant facilities and appurtenant aboveground
facilities, such as valves, cathodic protection, commu-
nication towers, and internal inspection device launch-
ers and receivers. FERC Order, ¶¶ 5, 6.
8. The Project also includes the construction and
operation of two new compressor stations in Wyoming
County, Pennsylvania and Columbia County, Pennsyl-
vania; two new meter stations in Susquehanna County,
Pennsylvania and Wyoming County, Pennsylvania and
three new regulator stations in Luzerne, Columbia,
App. 109
and Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania, with inter-

connecting piping; additional compression and related
modifications to three existing compressor stations in
Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, Columbia County,
Pennsylvania and Howard County, Maryland; minor
modifications at existing compressor stations in Mary-
land, Virginia and North Carolina to allow for bi-direc-
tional flow; installation of supplemental odorization,
odor detection and odor masking/deodorization equip-
ment at various aboveground facilities in North Caro-
lina and South Carolina; modification to an existing
meter station in Pennsylvania and additional piping to
an adjacent new meter station; and installation of an-
cillary facilities such as valves, cathodic protection,
communication towers, and internal inspection device
launchers and receivers. FERC Order, ¶¶ 7, 8.
9. Transco is the holder of a certificate of public
convenience and necessity issued by the FERC – the
FERC Order.
10. Under the Natural Gas Act, the holder of a
certificate of public convenience and necessity has the
power to condemn land for a federally approved natu-
ral gas pipeline project if:
(a) the company has been granted a Certifi-
cate of Public convenience and Necessity
from the FERC,
(b) the company has been unable to acquire
the needed land by contract with the
owner, and
App. 110
(c) the value of the property at issue is

claimed by the landowner at more than
$3,000.
15 U.S.C. § 717f(h); see Columbia Gas Transmission,
LLC v. 1.01 Acres, 768 F.3d 300, 304 (3d Cir. 2014); E.
Tenn. Natural Gas Co. v. Sage, 361 F.3d 808, 827-28
(4th Cir. 2004).
11. Transco meets these three requirements, as
detailed below.
TRANSCO IS A HOLDER OF A CERTIFICATE

OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY
12. On March 31, 2015, Transco filed an applica-
tion with the FERC under section 7(c) of the Natural
Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. § 717f(c) and Part 157 of the FERC’s
regulations for a certificate of public convenience and
necessity for its Project to construct and operate the
Project in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina and South Carolina. The Project will provide
an incremental 1.7 million dekatherms (Dth) per day
of year round firm transportation capacity from the
Marcellus Shale production area in northern Pennsyl-
vania to Transco’s existing market areas to meet the
growing demand for natural gas in the Mid-Atlantic
and southeastern markets.
13. Transco’s Project underwent an extensive re-
view process. The FERC evaluated the public need for
the Project (referred to as the “public convenience and
necessity” under Section 7(c) of the Natural Gas Act),
and completed a thorough review of environmental
App. 111
impacts and operational considerations before issuing

the FERC Order authorizing the Project.
14. The public was notified of the Project and
provided multiple opportunities to comment as out-
lined in the FERC Order, paragraphs 68, 70, 71-75:
a) On April 4, 2014, FERC staff granted
Transco’s request to use the pre-filing process in
Docket No. PF14-8-000. As part of the pre-filing review,
on July 18, 2014, FERC issued a Notice of Intent to Pre-
pare an Environmental Impact Statement for the
Planned Atlantic Sunrise Expansion Project, Request
for Comments on Environmental Issues, and Notice of
Public Scoping Meetings (NOI). The NOI was pub-
lished in the Federal Register on July 29, 2014,3 and
mailed to nearly 2,500 interested parties, including
federal, state, and local government representatives
and agencies; elected officials; environmental and pub-
lic interest groups; Native American tribes; affected
property owners; other interested parties; and local li-
braries and newspapers. The NOI briefly described the
project and the environmental review process, pro-
vided a preliminary list of issues identified by FERC
staff, invited written comments on the environmental
issues that should be addressed in the draft EIS, listed
the date and location of four public scoping meetings4
3
79 Fed. Reg. 44,023 (2014).
4
FERC staff held the public scoping meetings between Au-
gust 4 and 7, 2014, in Millersville, Annville, Bloomsburg, and Dal-
las, Pennsylvania.
App. 112
to be held in the project area, and established August

18, 2014, as the deadline for comments;
b) Transco filed its project application on
March 31, 2015. On October 22, 2015, FERC staff
mailed a letter to landowners potentially affected by
the path of several proposed project reroutes under
evaluation. The letter was mailed to over 300 affected
property owners, government officials, and other
stakeholders. The letter briefly described the proposed
alternative routes, invited newly affected landowners
to participate in the environmental review process,
and opened a special 30-day limited scoping period;
c) FERC staff issued the draft Environmental
Impact Statement (EIS) for the project on May 5, 2016,
which addressed the issues raised during the scoping
period and up to the point of publication. Notice of the
draft EIS was published in the Federal Register on May
12, 2016, establishing a 45-day public comment period
ending on June 27, 2016.5 The draft EIS was mailed to
the environmental mailing list for the project, includ-
ing additional interested entities that were added
since issuance of the NOI. FERC staff held four public
comment meetings between June 13 and 16, 2016.6 Ap-
proximately 203 speakers provided oral comments re-
garding the draft EIS at these meetings and FERC
also received over 560 written comments from federal,
state, and local agencies; Native American tribes;
5
81 Fed. Reg. 29,557 (2016).
6
FERC staff held the public comment meetings in Lancas-
ter, Annville, Bloomsburg, and Dallas, Pennsylvania.
App. 113
companies/organizations; and individuals in response

to the draft EIS. In addition, FERC received over 900
nearly identical letters. The transcripts of the public
comment meetings and all written comments on the
draft EIS are part of the public record for the project;
d) On October 13, 2016, FERC staff mailed a
letter to landowners potentially affected by two alter-
native pipeline routes identified following the issuance
of the draft EIS. The letter was mailed to 56 potentially
affected property owners, government officials, and
other stakeholders. The letter briefly described the pro-
posed alternative routes, invited potentially affected
landowners to participate in the environmental review
process, and opened a special 30-day comment period.
FERC staff received 25 comment letters from individ-
uals regarding the proposed alternative;
e) On November 3, 2016, FERC issued for
comment a draft General Conformity Determination,
which assessed the potential air quality impacts asso-
ciated with construction of the project in accordance
with NEPA, the Clean Air Act, and the Commission’s
regulations.7 The Pennsylvania Department of Envi-
ronmental Protection (PADEP), Clean Air Council,
Lebanon Pipeline Awareness, Sierra Club Pennsylva-
nia Chapter, Concerned Citizens of Lebanon County,
Lancaster Against Pipelines, and Elise Kucirka Sala-
hub filed timely comments on the draft General
7
The draft General Conformity Determination is publicly
available at: https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?
fileID=14391786.
App. 114
Conformity Determination. The final General Con-

formity Determination addressed all the comments re-
ceived prior to the close of the comment period on
December 5, 20168; and
f ) On December 30, 2016, FERC staff issued
the final EIS for the project which was published in the
Federal Register on January 9, 2017.9 The final EIS ad-
dresses timely comments received on the draft EIS.10
The final EIS was mailed to the same parties as the
draft EIS, as well as to newly identified landowners
and any additional parties that commented on the
draft EIS.11 The final EIS addresses geology; soils; wa-
ter resources; wetlands; vegetation; wildlife and fisher-
ies; special status species; land use, recreation, and
visual resources; socioeconomics; cultural resources;
air quality and noise; reliability and safety; cumulative
impacts; and aboveground site alternatives and minor
route variations incorporated into the project’s design.
8
The final General Conformity Determination is publicly
available at: https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_
num=20170117-3039.
9
82 Fed. Reg. 2,344 (2017).
10
Volume III of the final EIS includes responses to comments
on the draft EIS received through the close of the comment period
on June 27, 2016, and responses to additional comments received
between June 28 and November 14, 2016, that raised new issues
not previously identified prior to the close of the comment period.
Any new issues raised after November 14, 2016, which were not
previously identified, are addressed in this order.
11
The distribution list is provided in Appendix A of the final
EIS.
App. 115
15. The FERC held public meetings and noticed

the certificate application and EIS for the Project as
referenced above, and considered hundreds of com-
ments from various parties, including federal, state,
and local agencies, conservation groups and landown-
ers, before issuing the FERC Order.
16. When evaluating applications for certificates
to construct new pipeline facilities, the FERC takes
guidance from the Certificate Policy Statement, Certi-
fication of New Interstate Natural Gas Pipeline Facil-
ities, 88 FERC ¶ 61,227 (1999), clarified, 90 FERC
¶ 61,128 (2000), further certified, 92 FERC ¶ 61,094
(2000).
The Certificate Policy Statement establishes
criteria for determining whether there is a
need for a proposed project and whether the
proposed project will serve the public interest.
The Certificate Policy Statement explains
that in deciding whether to authorize the con-
struction of major new natural gas facilities,
the Commission balances the public benefits
against the potential adverse consequences.
The Commission’s goal is to give appropriate
consideration to the enhancement of competi-
tive transportation alternatives, the possibil-
ity of overbuilding, subsidization by existing
customers, the applicant’s responsibility for
unsubscribed capacity, the avoidance of un-
necessary disruptions of the environment,
and the unneeded exercise of eminent domain
in evaluating new pipeline construction.
FERC Order, ¶ 20.
App. 116
17. On February 3, 2017, the FERC approved the

Project and issued the FERC Order.
18. The FERC Order authorizes Transco, among
other things, to construct and install the new and mod-
ified pipeline facilities described above in Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania.
19. The Rights of Way on the Property are re-
quired to construct, install, operate and maintain the
pipeline facilities approved in the FERC Order.
20. The Rights of Way are more fully depicted
and identified in the drawings attached hereto as Ex-
hibit A, which are incorporated by reference.
21 The Rights of Way sought to be acquired on
the Property were reviewed and approved by FERC.
22. In issuing the FERC Order, the FERC con-
sidered the impact on landowners and communities
along the route of the Project. The FERC concluded
that the Project “has been designed to minimize im-
pacts on landowners and the surrounding communi-
ties.” FERC Order, ¶ 25.
23. The FERC concluded that “[b]ased on the
benefits that Transco’s project will provide, the ab-
sence of adverse effects on existing customers and
other pipelines and their captive customers, and the
minimal adverse effects on landowners or surrounding
communities, we find, consistent with the Certificate
Policy Statement and NGA section 7(c), that the public
App. 117
convenience and necessity requires approval of

Transco’s proposal, subject to the conditions discussed
below.” FERC Order, ¶ 33.
24. Accordingly, Transco has a valid FERC Order
covering the Rights of Way sought in this Action.
25. Transco has satisfied the first condition for
the exercise of eminent domain under Section 7(h) of
the Natural Gas Act.
TRANSCO HAS BEEN UNABLE TO ACQUIRE

THE RIGHTS OF WAY BY AGREEMENT
26. Transco, by its agents, contacted Landowner
numerous times for the purpose of negotiating the ac-
quisition of the Rights of Way.
27. A copy of the appraisal setting forth the Ap-
praised Value was provided to the Landowner.
28. Transco offered an amount that is higher
than the Appraised Value.
29. Landowner rejected, or otherwise did not ac-
cept, Transco’s offer.
30. Transco is unable to acquire the Rights of
Way by contract or to agree on the compensation to be
paid for the Rights of Way with the Landowner.
31. Accordingly, Transco has satisfied the second
condition required prior to the exercise of eminent do-
main under Section 7(h) of the Natural Gas Act.
App. 118
TRANSCO HAS OFFERED AT LEAST

$3,000 FOR THE RIGHTS OF WAY
32. Transco offered to pay Landowner at least
$3,000 for the Rights of Way.
33. Transco has satisfied the third condition re-
quired prior to the exercise of eminent domain under
Section 7(h) of the Natural Gas Act.
34. Transco has satisfied all statutory require-
ments and is authorized to exercise eminent domain
under Section 7(h) of the Natural Gas Act.
WHEREFORE, Transco requests that the Court
issue an Order and demands judgment against the
Rights of Way and Defendants, as follows:
(1) An Order of Condemnation that Transco
has the substantive right to condemn the
Rights of Way;
(2) Fix the compensation to be paid to De-
fendants for the Rights of Way;
(3) Grant title to the Rights of Way to
Transco; and
(4) Any other lawful and proper relief.
App. 119
Respectfully submitted,
SAUL EWING LLP
/s/ Elizabeth U. Witmer
Elizabeth U. Witmer, Esq.
(55808)
Sean T. O’Neill, Esq. (205595)
1200 Liberty Ridge Drive,
Suite 200
Wayne, PA 19087-5569
(610) 251-5062
[email protected]
[email protected]
Attorneys for Plaintiff
Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line
Company, LLC
Dated: February 15, 2017
VERIFICATION
I, David Sztroin, verify that I am authorized to
make this Verification on behalf of Transcontinental
Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC, and that the facts set
forth in the foregoing Verified Complaint in Condem-
nation are true and correct to the best of my
knowledge, information and belief. I understand that I
am making this Verification subject to the penalties of
28 U.S.C. § 1746 relating to unsworn falsification to au-
thorities. I verify under penalty of perjury under the
App. 120
laws of the United States of America that the foregoing

is true and correct.
/s/ David Sztroin
David Sztroin
Date: February 15, 2017

Petition For A Writ of Certiorari, Like v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., No. - (U.S. Mar. 13, 2019)

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Petition For A Writ of Certiorari, Like v. Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co., No. - (U.S. Mar. 13, 2019)

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No.

LYNDA LIKE, et al.,

On Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

JEREMY HOPKINS DANA BERLINER

The Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. § 717f(h)) dele-

PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDINGS BELOW

The opinion below consolidated four separate

PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Pennsylvania Tax Parcel Number 1202476100000,

TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued

TABLE OF CONTENTS – Continued

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES – Continued

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES – Continued

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

STATUTORY PROVISIONS INVOLVED

contract, or is unable to agree with the owner

Transcontinental sent work crews to take over peti-

condemnor. But, paradoxically, companies like Trans-

similar preliminary injunctions in Natural Gas Act

America. Gary Erb, who owns his home through Peti-

transmission of natural gas without first obtaining a

to acquire the needed land by contract or agreement

petition in early 2017, seeking to condemn both perma-

below. The Mohns, however, have moved away from Lancaster

as the Seventh Circuit held in Northern Border Pipe-

REASONS FOR GRANTING THE PETITION

compensation for the property interest being taken. Id.

invade private property outside the confines of a

Transcontinental the power to take immediate posses-

was beyond the purview of the courts: The ability to

Since Transcontinental’s substantive right to condemn

of property—with its life estates, contingent remain-

injunction here for precisely the same reason. Here,

II. Of the seven courts of appeals to address

In Northern Border Pipeline Co. v. 86.72 Acres, 144 F.3d

to “a substantive entitlement to the defendants’ land

the same distinction). The Eighth and Ninth Circuits

file a condemnation action under § 717f(h) is simply

parlayed into immediate possession of the defendants’

III. The question presented is important.

rule endorsed by the decision below, all of these con-

Allowing a condemnor to take land now means that

In other words, by allowing pipeline companies

IV. This case is a good vehicle for deciding the

First, a final judgment in the condemnation action

Technologies, Inc. v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1969,

This case presents an important question of prop-

MANOR TOWNSHIP, LANCASTER, PA; STEPHEN

ROTH, Circuit Judge

The NGA gives natural gas companies the power

§ 717f(h) of the NGA, gas companies may acquire prop-

interest groups, Native American tribes, affected prop-

pipeline, “the minimal adverse effects on landowners

stay the Order Issuing Certificate and construction of

and third requirements. The company filed condemna-

for Transcontinental’s parent company, Williams Partners, L.P.,

finished briefing the summary judgment motions.27

taking constituted a “quick take” and that it violated

adjudication of a claim does not amount to a depriva-

Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC v. 1.01 Acres. In that

access to natural gas, and found that “the mere fact

preliminary injunction test.53 Therefore, we review