First lawsuit filed over gas leak in Gunnison

Sam Penrod reporting The first of what could be many lawsuits over an underground gas leak in central Utah was filed today.

The suit is being filed by a business owner who says the leak in Gunnison contaminated her store and compromised her inventory of dresses, forcing her to close. She says she is suing because Top Stop rejected her claims of damages.

The owner of the dress shop in Gunnison called state environmental officials in July reporting fumes in her store. She submitted a claim of damages to Top Stop last month and was told by the oil company's attorneys that her claim of millions of dollars in damages was "preposterous."

The lawsuit is being filed by Lila Lee Christensen, whose store was a fixture on Gunnison's Main Street for more than 57 years.

Her attorney says the lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to properly compensate her for the losses resulting from the underground gas leak of nearly 20,000 gallons of gasoline. Christensen's attorney, Jared Inouye, says, "We're concerned that Wind River doesn't understand the magnitude of the problem in Gunnison, and it's not sufficiently sympathetic to the damages caused to Gunnison residents and our clients."

Specifically the lawsuit makes allegations that Top Stop knew its tank had a problem long before it reported it to the state on Aug. 9 and attempted to shut down its store without reporting the leak.

The suit also alleges that Christensen suffered health risks from breathing the gasoline vapors for more than a month before Top Stop reported the leak to the state, and that her entire inventory was ruined. "Lila Lee calculates the value, the retail value of her inventory at $1.7 million," says Inouye.

Top Stop's attorney sent Christensen a letter expressing interest in settling but rejecting her claim of damages that was in the millions of dollars. "Wind River has given us an indication that their view of the value of our client's claims is dramatically different than ours, and so that leaves us with not a whole lot of choice but to file a lawsuit in order to protect our client's interests."

We were able to make contact with the attorney representing Top Stop, and he declined to comment on the pending litigation.

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