Southwest Gas has agreed to pay a settlement to Tucson’s Nimbus Brewing Co. The brewery’s owner, Jim Counts, had linked the company’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization filing to problems with a gas meter.
Southwest Gas spokeswoman Libby Howell confirmed that a deal had been struck, though she would not comment on the exact terms or the amount.
“We accepted no liability,” Howell said. “It was purely an economic decision on our part. (The agreed payment) was less than the cost of litigation.”
The terms are subject to review by a bankruptcy judge, she said.
Counts said he would receive “several hundred thousand dollars.”
When Nimbus filed for reorganization in April, Counts blamed the company’s precarious financial position, in part, on Southwest Gas installing a new meter at his brewery and bar at 3850 E. 44th St. in August 2011.
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Nimbus sued Southwest Gas on March 15, alleging that the utility deprived the brewery of necessary gas service for four weeks.
In the suit, the brewery contended that Southwest Gas employees, on their own initiative, changed out the brewery’s gas meter, replacing it with one that was too small for brewing.
Read more of this story Monday in the Arizona Daily Star and on StarNet.