Water authority trial delayed
By PAT FRIDGEN Echo Pilot

"What was I thinking?" Judge Richard J. Walsh asked two members of the bar who were on speaker-phone. He wondered how he could have thought a trial would be possible a week after he scheduled arguments on a summary judgment.

Walsh was speaking to Steven Hann, representing Greencastle Area, Franklin County, Water Authority and Thomas Finucane, representing the estate of Jack A. Lanehart in a dispute over a water line. Walsh held the session in his office at the Franklin County Courthouse Thursday morning. His calendar included a nonjury trial March 27 and 28 on the civil lawsuit.

The three men spoke for nearly 45 minutes on issues surrounding a 1975 agreement between Lanehart and the Greencastle water authority. Lanehart constructed a water line on Colonial Drive to provide municipal water to Green- Way Development. The borough maintained and repaired the line from then on. In July 2002 the Authority allowed a developer to connect to the capped line to serve 44 homes in the Greens of Greencastle Phase IV subdivision.

Lanehart filed a complaint on Sept. 1, 2005 and died the following June. His daughter Lisa J. Sankbeil, as executrix of the estate, continued the battle. The legal flow of data resulted in a February motion by the defendants to dismiss the lawsuit. Walsh heard the oral arguments last week.

Finecune said the 1975 agreement was complied with until 2002 and Lanehart would have had no reason to object to anything prior to that. He had not been party to a 1988 agreement in which Antrim Township transferred ownership of the line back to the Water Authority.

"You can only transfer what you own," said Finecune. "They have no record whatsoever to support the contention they own the line."

He said the only clause in the first agreement was that if Green-Way was annexed, the line became the property of the borough.

Hann said that while a deed of dedication may not exist, operational law would suggest implied dedication, since the township and the authority took care of the line for the past 30 years.

They discussed interpretations of wording, cited case law and defined rights and responsibilities from different perspectives.

It became apparent to Walsh that he could not hold court in a week.

"I'll be danged if I want to move this from next week," he said, "but there's no way I'll have a decision in less than seven days. This is snarling. It's thorny."

Hann and Finecune agreed one day would be sufficient to present their positions if the case did conclude in court. Walsh set the trial for July 3 and promised to contact them both if an earlier date opened up.