Biaforas Sue Over Washed-away Docks

Morgantown Dominion Post
10 May 2015
By Alex Lang

MORGANTOWN — A local family has filed a lawsuit over docks that were swept away from Cheat Lake during a winter storm.

Marine One LLC, which does business as Cheat Lake Marina, filed suit against William F. Clemmer and Robert D. Cox, both of Point Marion, Pa., in Monongalia County Circuit Court. Rick and David Biafora own Marine One.

In March, the docks were washed off Cheat Lake after ice broke up on the lake.

According to the lawsuit: Between 75 and 175 docks were swept away. Clemmer and Cox took custody of the docks and kept them. The two did it “in an effort to harass, annoy and oppress” the Biaforas.

The Biaforas asked for the docks back, and the two men responded with “threats and innuendo” that they would be destroyed unless money — the lawsuit calls it the equivalent to a ransom — was paid.

The suit asks for a preliminary injunction as damages total more than $400,000.

Cox said that he never refused to return the docks, only asking the Biaforas for proof that the docks belong to them. He said that the law says that someone should be compensated for items salvaged from the river.