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Vulcan Materials sued for $5 millionBy MARY CARTER STONE Staff WriterForty-eight persons who reside in the vicinity of the Vulcan Materials Co. quarry in Rockingham County, N.C., have entered a $5 million suit against the company in U.S. Western District Court in Danville.They also are asking the court to enjoin and restrain the defendant company from continuing blasting operations in any manner and from any activity that endangers the plaintiffs’ families or properties.A number of separate causes of action are enumerated in the suit against the company, which is identified as a New Jersey corporation but is listed with a Richmond address.The plaintiffs are described as residents and landowners in the immediate vicinity of the stone quarry operated by Vulcan outside the town limits of Stoneville, N.C.Through their attorney, Jackson L. Kiser ' of Martinsville, they maintain that Vulcan’s rock-blasting operations at the quarry over the past five years have been performed in such a negligent, careless, reckless and unlawful manner as to damage the persona! and real properties of these plaintiffs.They claim that the blasts ‘‘have been of such terrible noise and force as to cause heavy vibrations, through the air and through the ground,” with resultant damages to structures and movements of objects inside buildings.Watershed disruption and pollution of natural waters also are cited by the plaintiffs, along with “excessive noise rendering real property use very limited, if not useless.Furthermore, it is contended, blasting with heavy concentrations of explosives has caused “many large stones to be hurled onto the properties of the plaintiffs . . . causing property damage and creating an extremely dangerous situation . . .especially the children playing out in the yards.”This situation has continued, the plaintiffs maintain, although they and other residents in the immediate vicinity of the quarry “have given the said corporation written and verbal notice that the blasting was severely damaging the properties . . . and otherwise interfering with their rights.”According to the plaintiffs, “these protestations . . . have been ignored . . . and the said defendant corporation has continued and, in fact, increased the... blasting.”Calling the quarry operation “both a private and public nuisance, they also call attention to problems resulting from wind-blown dust and other chemical products generated by the work.II is the plaintiffs’ contention that the dust — “for all practical purposes impossible of removal” — makes it necessary to keep doors and windows closed al all times. But despite such precautions, they say. the dust seeps in, and adheres to machinery, parts, tools and crops.The result of this nuisance, according to the suit, is that the property of the plaintiffs has become badly deteriorated, which deterioration will become more severe and at a greater rate upon the continuation of the said nuisance.”A separate cause of action advises the court that the medical condition of the infant daughter of two complainants, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Williams, has been so aggravated by the dust that “they have been unable to complete and reside in their newly constructed home.”In still another cause of action, the suit contends that “the defendant was fully informed of the damages being incurred by the plaintiffs, but willfully, intentionally and maliciously increased the blastings and other operations with full knowledge that future damage would result to plaintiffs.''In view of all these allegations, the suit asks the court for compensatory and exemplary damages.If the defendant is allowed to continue such blasting in the future, the suit states, the plaintiffs will have no adequate remedy at law. For this reason the court is asked to enjoin Vulcan “from conducting blasting operations in any manner.The -18 plaintiffs are listed as: Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Young, Mr, and Mrs. Marvin Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Watkins, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Williams, C. G. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Collins,Also Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Wilson, Mr. and Mrs. Morton Solomon, Mr. and Mrs. Robert flicks, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Stanford, Mr, and Mrs. Lowell Price, Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Buon tempo,And also Mr. and Mrs. Ed Barker, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Barker, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Barker, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Simon Thomas,And Mr. and Mrs. William L. Price, Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Price, Mr. and Mrs. Weldon Price, Mr. and Mrs. Garland Smith, Mr. and Mrs. S. R. Lowe, and Mrs. F. L. Walker Jr.
Newspaper Details
Danville Bee
Danville, Virginia, US
Wed, Oct 26, 1977
Page 42
Full Page
Clipped by
University O.
PA, USA 26 Feb 2019
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