YOUNGSTOWN — Two new lawsuits were filed last week by the Youngstown-based management company for the Realty Tower and an affiliated construction company in the May 28, 2024, natural-gas explosion in the basement of the Realty Tower.

LY Property, the management company for Realty Tower, filed one of the suits, naming Enbridge Gas Ohio, East Ohio Gas and other Enbridge-related companies and the engineering company MS Consultants Inc. as defendants, as well as 10 John Does.

The construction company GreenHeart of Boardman filed the other lawsuit, naming Enbridge-related companies, 10 John Does and MS Consultants as defendants.

Brian Angelilli owns the Realty Tower and GreenHeart Companies, according to documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the explosion.

Angelilli was questioned extensively by a panel of the NTSB looking into the explosion. GreenHeart Companies hired the crew that was working in the basement of the Realty Tower when it exploded.

Yo Properties 47, LY Property Management and GreenHeart Companies together settled with the family of Akil Drake, the Chase Bank employee who died in the explosion, for $3 million as part of a resolution of a lawsuit Drake’s family filed.

Enbridge-related defendants agreed to pay $2.9 million. Also as part of the settlement, MS Consultants agreed to pay $100,000, and A. Nieder Architecture agreed to pay $100,000, according to Mahoning County Probate Court documents.

The new LY Property Management lawsuit, filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, alleges that the Enbridge defendants are responsible for providing natural gas to the Youngstown area and owned or controlled the natural gas line in the Realty Tower that caused the explosion.

The lawsuit alleges that LY Property Management “relied on and believed that all gas company defendants” and the John Does “would properly deactivate and decommission the natural gas line in question, making it safe in compliance with applicable law.”

It added, that “Not until the May 28, 2024, explosion was it revealed or understood that all gas company defendants herein … failed to fulfill their duties.”

The suit states that the explosion that resulted from workers cutting a pressurized but inactive natural gas line in the basement of the Realty Tower “caused LY Property to suffer losses, including the loss of business as leasing agent and property manager for Realty Tower and damage to personal property located therein.”

The Enbridge-related companies and John Does “controlled and had exclusive authority over the natural gas service line located in the vault adjacent to the Realty Tower and the supply and transportation of natural gas to the site,” the lawsuit states.

The Enbridge-related companies and John Does “deactivated and decommissioned the gas line that ran to the vault adjacent to the Realty Tower in 2015, the suit states. The Enbridge-related companies also “failed to comply with local, state and federal regulations and laws in the decommissioning and deactivating of the gas line that caused the explosion,” the suit alleges.

And it states that “Enbridge Gas Ohio, formerly Dominion Energy, has been cited and found by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to have violated pipeline safety regulations several times since 2012, which resulted in several explosions, including the failure to keep records of abandoned natural gas lines, failure to properly decommission natural gas lines and failure to inspect natural gas lines.”

When Enbridge was asked Tuesday to comment on the new lawsuits, spokesperson Kendra Black stated: “Our thoughts remain with those impacted by this event and their families. We’re unable to comment on the suit brought forward due to ongoing litigation.

“We also remain a party to the NTSB’s ongoing investigation and while federal regulations limit our ability to comment publicly, we remain committed to continuing to contribute to the investigation.”

The suit states that MS Consultants “was involved in the investigation, project management, planning and execution for the (2015) construction project at or adjacent to the Realty Tower that included the decommissioning / deactivating of existing natural gas lines and removal of existing meters.”

The suit alleges MS Consultants “failed to properly identify the decommissioned natural gas line and coordinate with other named defendants herein regarding the appropriate and proper decommissioning of the natural gas line.”

The suit seeks at least $25,000 in damages. The suits were both filed by attorney Michael Pasternak of Beachwood.

GreenHeart filed the other lawsuit. The two lawsuits appear to name the same defendants, make the same allegations and seek the same damages.

An attempt to obtain a comment from MS Consultants late Tuesday was not successful.