Editorial: Rustic Ridge lawsuits shouldn't be a surprise to plaintiffs, but for some, they are

The first lawsuits over the fatal 2023 explosion in the Rustic Ridge development in Plum have been filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

This was to be expected. The two-year anniversary of the explosion is rapidly approaching. The incident has been investigated. The timing is appropriate.

Last week, suits were filed by the families of the six people killed in the explosion: Heather Oravitz, 51, and her husband Paul Oravitz, 56; Michael Thomas, 57; Kevin Sebunia, 55; and Casey Klontz, 38, and his son Keegan, 12.

Then there are the defendants. There is Penneco Oil Co., an oil and gas exploration company based in Delmont. There is Peoples Natural Gas, an interstate natural gas provider. There is also A.O. Smith Corp., the company that sold the water heater that plaintiffs claim exploded, and Grasinger Homes, the builder behind the development.

On Thursday, more suits were filed. These were done by deLuca | Levine, a law firm in Montgomery County that specializes in subrogation.

Subrogation is an area of law that allows one party to act as a proxy for another in certain situations, specifically with insurance.

For instance, if you are hit by a car and your insurance pays out for your hospital bills, you don’t sue the driver. Your insurance company, however, can do so. In Pennsylvania, an insurance company can’t file to recoup its own loss in that case. But it can file in your name.

That is the case in the latest Rustic Ridge suits. They list a slate of plaintiffs who were the neighbors of the Oravitzes, the house at the center of the explosion. They come from nine streets in the Rustic Ridge development — not just Rustic Ridge Drive but also others surrounding. The explosion rocked the entire neighborhood and caused extensive damage.

The shocking part is not that the suits were filed. It’s that people who are listed as plaintiffs did not know.

These were homeowners whose doors or facades sustained damage from the blast that was submitted to insurance companies for compensation. Most of those named in the suits were unaware they were filed, TribLive discovered.

The filings follow the law in listing the people who had claims as the plaintiffs, even if the beneficiaries of the suit ultimately would be the insurance companies.

But that does not mean that an entire neighborhood should be blindsided, especially as they approach the difficult anniversary.

The community of Rustic Ridge pulled together in an admirable way in the aftermath of the explosion. They lost together, and they leaned on one another to overcome that loss.

The subrogation suits naming plaintiffs without warning could be misinterpreted. It could be read as an attempt to cash in — something it absolutely is not. In fact, the point of subrogation is to prevent a double-dipping in compensation. But as most people don’t know the ins and outs of insurance law, the people listed as plaintiffs need to know how their names are being used so they can explain what is happening.

“It seems wrong to name you in a suit when you had nothing to do with it,” said Autumn Favero, who told TribLive she never wanted to be included.

It does seem wrong, and even though it’s legal, it definitely seems like something that merits notification.