NiSource Beats Shareholder Suit Over Deadly 2018 Gas Explosion

NiSource Inc. is free of a shareholder derivative suit over the fallout from a natural gas explosion that killed one person after a federal judge in Delaware dismissed the case due to demand failures.

The natural gas distribution company’s shareholder didn’t make a required pre-suit demand on NiSource’s board before filing the derivative complaint or demonstrate why doing so would have been futile, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware said.

A NiSource subsidiary, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to violations of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act after the 2018 explosion in and around Andover, ...