The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation faces an adverse inference after repairing a road soon after it was damaged by a diesel fuel spill allegedly caused by the defendants, according to a ruling from the Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas.

Last week, Judge Richard A. Gray denied the defendants' motion seeking sanctions, including a dismissal of the complaint, against the state transportation department because its repair of the damaged road hindered the defendants' efforts to test their own core samples. However, the judge determined that a lesser sanction for the roadwork would be appropriate.

“There was a minimal degree of fault by plaintiff in going forward with the milling of the road before defendants had an opportunity to drill their own core samples,” Gray said in his opinion in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation v. P. Stone.