A prominent Baltimore attorney is joining a federal lawsuit to defend over 60 Maryland property owners in their battle against an out-of-state utility company.
Harris Eisenstein, a partner at Rosenberg Martin Greenberg, LLP, said Monday morning that representing private property owners against the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) is a passionate feat.
“In the eminent domain sphere, almost always, it is the little man against the big guy, David versus Goliath,” Eisenstein said. “It’s no truer than in this case.”
“We have dozens of property owners that have banded together and have hired us to face off against the nemesis, which is this publicly traded company that wants to pursue this power line project,” Eisenstein added.
The citizen-led opposition group Stop MPRP, founded by Joanne Frederick and others along the proposed 67-mile high-voltage power line project’s path through Baltimore, Carroll, and Frederick Counties, has privately raised funds to hire Eisenstein’s team.
The group seeks to dismiss a complaint filed April 15 by Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the developer behind the MPRP.
The New Jersey-based utility’s attorneys wrote in their lawsuit against Maryland property owners that the organization is “legally entitled to enter” private property along the proposed route to conduct surveys and appraisals associated with the project because it is a “‘body politic or corporate’ that has the ‘power of eminent domain.’”
Eisenstein said that his legal team disagrees with PSEG’s assertion, arguing that PSEG, as a private company, has no authority to exercise eminent domain.
“It would be the [Maryland] Public Service Commission, that is the entity that issues authority here in the state of Maryland for transmission line projects,” Eisenstein said. “What’s confusing, and I think a lot of my clients are confused, they’re in federal court asking a judge, in some ways, to do the same thing.”
According to federal court records, U.S. District Court Judge Adam Abelson presides over the lawsuit. Abelson was appointed in 2023 by former President Joe Biden and subsequently confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a party-line vote.
Abelson did not respond to requests for comment.
Eisenstein’s firm is not alone in representing clients listed in PSEG’s lawsuit. Court records show that Peter and John Radio Fellowship, the nonprofit owners of River Valley Ranch, a 500-acre Christian camp, are among several other respondents who have also retained private counsel making similar arguments to Eisenstein.
“PSEG RT has no current eminent domain authority, failed to make ‘every real and bona fide effort’ before seeking an entry to property as required by Maryland law, and faces, at most, delay in its private business plan – a harm that is speculative and monetary, not irreparable,” River Valley Ranch’s attorney Jennifer Wazenski wrote. “Urgency manufactured by litigation tactics cannot justify the extraordinary remedy of preliminary injunctive relief.”
Eisenstein said he is highly confident in successfully convincing the court to deny PSEG’s immediate access demands to his clients’ property.
“Right now, it is very important that they get a fair shake, that PSEG goes through the process and follows the entire process,” Eisenstein said. “At the end of the day, whether or not this project advances, it might advance, but are they allowed to take shortcuts? No.”
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Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun.