The Nebraska Injury Law Report

The Lincoln Journal Star has editorialized on Keating O’Gara’s most recent victory against the City of Lincoln on behalf of homeowners who, due to the city’s negligence, built homes in a flood plain.

From the October 26th Lincoln Journal Star editorial page:

City foul-up on flood plain is inexcusable
Friday, Oct 26, 2007 - 12:13:51 am CDT

The case of the Lincoln homeowners who unknowingly built in a flood plain is alarming.

The findings in the case erode public confidence in the basic competence of Lincoln city government.

As disclosed in court, the homeowners in the Cardwell Woods subdivision relied on information supplied by city officials that their lots were above the flood plain.

It turned out that city officials had misplaced a flood plain map, according to court testimony. “… no one in the Building and Safety Department has been able to explain where it went or why it was removed,” wrote Lancaster County District Judge Steven Burns.

Burns ruled that the city was negligent for not accurately informing homeowners about the flood plain when building permits were issued.

A two-day trial is set for January to determine monetary damages. They could run into millions.

Any homeowner can easily empathize with Troy Stonacek, who learned in May 2005 that the lowest floor of his home was seven feet below the flood plain. Only the top floor and the garage were above it. “I was furious,” Stonacek said.

In granting the building permits, officials in city government’s Building and Safety Department used an old Federal Emergency Mangement Agency map. They should have used a state Natural Resources study of the area that was completed and submitted to the city in January 1997.

The new map showed a flood plain elevation seven feet higher than the old map.

Its accuracy was demonstrated in May, when a downpour left four inches of water in homeowner George Bristol’s basement and a pond more than three feet deep lapping at the patio door.

The city mounted a defense against the lawsuit filed by the unhappy homeowners but lost in what appears to be an open-and-shut case.

Now the city should let the public know what steps it has taken to avoid repeating this dreadful error. An elementary mistake like this should never happen again.