On October 5, The Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled that the City of Piqua it can’t get out of a lawsuit yet. Residents who say they were harmed by battery burning at a city-owned site can keep pressing their case against the city.
Roughly thirty-three residents filed a lawuit in Delaware County in September 2025. The plaintiffs claim they breathed toxic smoke from burning lithium-ion batteries at Piqua’s old water treatment plant. The burning happened between 2018 and 2023. Two private companies, Energy Storage Response Group (ESRG) and Bensen Fire & Safety Consulting, did the work on land they leased from the city, are also named in the lawsuit.
The residents claim no one kept watch on the air and further claim that tests found heavy metals in some people’s blood. They also note the site sits near the Great Miami River. The city shut down the battery burning operation in 2023, after the Ohio EPA found ESRG went beyond what its permits allowed. It’s important to note that none of these claims made by the plaintiffs have been proven in a court of law. The case is in Delaware County, not Miami County, because one of the businesses is based there.
While the case has not gone to trial, there are some significant legal issues that needed to be addresed. In one of those legal issues, the City of Piqua asked the trial judge to throw out the claims against the city. Its main argument was immunity. In Ohio, cities are usually protected from lawsuits for money damages. Think of it as a shield, but that shield has gaps. Generally, a local government is protected when it does a “governmental” job, like running a fire department. It can be sued when it does a “proprietary” job. That means work a private business might do, like renting out property.
In March, the trial judge threw out several claims, including nuisance and gross negligence. The judge kept two: negligence and strict liability. The judge said it was too early to decide if Piqua is immune. Piqua appealed those two claims to the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
The three appeals judges unanimously agreed with the trial judge. Their reasoning was plain. At this stage, a court must treat the residents’ claims as true. Residents don’t have to prove their case in their first filing. Piqua had to show that the complaint clearly proves it is immune. The court said Piqua did not do that.
The judges also said the same site can host governmental work one day and proprietary work the next. It depends on what is really happening. Piqua says the site was used for firefighter training. The residents say the burning happened under the label of training, but firefighters were often not even there. A court can’t sort that out from paperwork alone. The judges called an early dismissal “premature.”
So the case continues to grind in the Delaware County Common Pleas Court. The two claims against Piqua move into discovery. That is when each side shares documents and answers questions under oath. Piqua can raise immunity again later. The trial judge said so plainly. Once the facts are on the record, the city can ask the judge to rule in its favor without a trial. This appeal only covered the city. ESRG and Bensen were named in the suit too and were not subject to the appeal made to the Fifth Distrct Court of Appeals.
It’s just as important to say what this ruling does not mean. The court did not say Piqua did anything wrong. It did not say anyone was hurt by the burning. It said the questions are big enough that they need real facts, not just arguments.
It’s important to recongize that these actions took place at a publicly-owned facility. Residents want to know who knew what, and when. Discovery may begin to answer that, and this publication will continue to follow this story.
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