A lawsuit in the Arkansas courts could have major ramifications on midstream pipelines as a group of landowners are seeking to have eminent domain status removed from interstate pipelines connecting to intrastate transmission pipelines.

The suit, filed by four property owners against Chesapeake Energy’s Arkansas Midstream Gas Services subsidiary, contends that eminent domain status cannot be obtained by gathering pipelines because they connect to intrastate pipelines, which have eminent domain.

Arkansas Midstream Gas Services claimed this status when it sought to build an interconnect line out of the Fayetteville shale to the Northeast through 40 acres of land owned by the four plaintiffs.

“As a private, for-profit company, [Arkansas Midstream Gas Services] is attempting to claim an unlimited power of eminent domain… for a natural gas pipeline intended solely for the private use of Chesapeake Energy and its limited customers to shuttle natural gas between its privately owned and operated gas wells to points of sale,” Donald Raney, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs, wrote in a brief filed in White County Circuit Court.

The defendant argued that it is in the best interest of the entire state for gas from the Fayetteville to be gathered and transported to larger markets.

“This is not just for Arkansas Midstream’s affiliate, Chesapeake; it is for all working interest owners of the well. If you consider the royalty owners, you have the whole public that has a use for these lines,” Jerry Canfield, a lawyer for the defendant told ArkansasBusiness.com.

A decision was ruled in favor of the Chesapeake subsidiary by a White County Circuit judge, but the plaintiffs are waiting for the judges’ finding of fact before appealing the decision.

Raney stated that his clients will seek to bypass the court of appeals in favor of the state supreme court on the basis that the issue at hand is a state matter.

The landowners do not object to the pipeline itself. They object to the proposed path of the pipeline which bodes well for this particular pipeline to be put in place, but it could have larger implications for similar pipelines either way that the Arkansas Supreme Court rules as parties on both sides of the eminent domain argument will cite this decision in different courts in the country should similar cases arise.