Fenn Church was away from his land near Calera last week when Alabama Power crews went to work. By his estimate, they cleared about 300 yards of trees on his property before he got back.
On Nov. 10, a Shelby County judge handed him a win anyway. Circuit Judge Jonathan Spann dismissed the utility’s new lawsuit and denied its request to keep Church at least 300 feet from the crews clearing a path for a transmission line across his property.
What the judge decided
Alabama Power had sued Church the week before, asking for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. The company said it needed the buffer for safety, arguing that Church would not keep a safe distance from crews preparing to clear trees and brush.
Church’s attorneys asked the court to throw the case out. They argued that the company could not run a second lawsuit with the same parties and the same issues while the original condemnation case is still pending. Spann agreed that Alabama law bars two such cases from moving forward at the same time, and he denied both the restraining order and the injunction, according to ABC 33/40…