Following Civil Trial, Landowner Allegedly 'Threatened' NEXUS Surveyor with Shotgun

NEXUS warded off a challenge to its pipeline surveying work when a Medina County judge ruled that landowners must allow the company's representatives onto their property. (Four residents were named as defendants in a restraining order case earlier this year; they eventually lost in court after obtaining a temporary victory.)

And so on Oct. 10, land surveyor Frank Batson got back to work and spoke with defendants Donald Houston, Donald Borling and Dorothy Morris.

“Mr. Borling threatened the NEXUS representative that he owned ‘12-gauge shells with salt in them for you, buddy,'" according to an affidavit signed by Batson.

Via reporting from the Chronicle-Telegram:

Borling’s attorney, Greg Huber, said his client was caught off guard and was upset when he alluded to the shotgun shells.

“He wasn’t going to use it,” Huber said. “He was just upset.”

Huber criticized the NEXUS Gas Transmission Pipeline — which is a combination of efforts by Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp., Detroit-based DTE Energy and Canada-based Enbridge Inc. — for sending out surveyors just days after the judge ruled.

“Normally, you have 30 days to file a notice of appeal,” he said. “I had no idea that two days after the order, they’d have people on my clients’ doorsteps without any communication to me, trying to get them to sign things.”