Bellevue family files lawsuit against city after landslide destroys home
Relatives documents lawsuit against city for Bellevue landslide that destroyed property
A Bellevue few submitted a lawsuit against the city for the broken h2o pipe that brought about a landslide in February, wrecking their household.
BELLEVUE, Wash. – The proprietors of a household that slid off its foundation in a everyday living-threatening landslide officially filed a lawsuit towards the metropolis of Bellevue on Wednesday, for unspecified monetary damages.
According to courtroom documents, the home owners are suing the city, saying a burst h2o most important, mounted in the 1960s, is to blame for their financial decline, bodily injuries and emotional trauma.
On Jan. 17, a river of h2o and mud ripped John and Barbara Surdi’s dwelling and carpet business off its basis, injuring Barbara who was nevertheless inside of at the time.
The town originally proposed significant rain staying the result in of the landslide that broke the asbestos cement h2o pipe earlier mentioned the residence. The Surdi’s lawsuit promises the reverse, that the pipe failure is what activated the landslide.
Associated: Investigators will evaluation age, affliction of h2o primary that broke in Bellevue landslide
Investigators will evaluate age, ailment and composition of h2o main that broke in Bellevue
The City of Bellevue released an investigation immediately after a landslide brought about an occupied residence to slide off its foundation and collapse on Jan. 17. Officials explained the investigation could choose weeks or even months to figure out the induce of the landslide.
According to court docket paperwork, the lawsuit builds on what was unveiled by FOX13’s reporting in the months right after the disaster, and based in aspect on the city’s possess engineering overview: that asbestos cement pipes are not as trustworthy as previously imagined when they ended up at first set up.
- 30. The vast majority of the City’s drinking water utility pipe failures occur in asbestos cement pipes.
- 31. Asbestos cement pipes have a shorter beneficial life than cast iron or ductile iron pipes.
- 34. When asbestos cement pipes fail, they are additional very likely to catastrophically are unsuccessful.
- 42. The Town realized or should have acknowledged that the h2o main on the Water Primary Steep Slope was matter to lateral pressures that could lead to the pipe to are unsuccessful.
- 47. The Town failed to well timed inspect the asbestos cement water key on the Water Major Steep Slope.
The City of Bellevue’s Main Communications Officer, Brad Harwood, responded to the lawsuit on Wednesday:
“Initial and foremost, we at the City of Bellevue realize that this has been an unbelievably unpleasant process for the Surdi relatives. We wish them the most effective as they continue to recover from this terrible and unpredicted occasion.
Today’s move by the Surdi’s is not unanticipated. A social gathering can file a lawsuit after 60 days have passed after submitting a declare. To day, the town has not taken action to affirm or deny the declare. The slide was a sophisticated incident, and it will acquire far more than a few of months to determine the bring about and any likely legal responsibility.
The pipe included in the Jan. 17, 2022 slide occasion was set up by the operator of the hillside in the early 1970s, not the town. It’s an 8-inch water line that has had no prior historical past of claimed leaks or breakage. The pipe stays buried in the hillside beneath somewhere around 10-20 ft of fill and has now been video scoped many occasions. Centered on this first investigation there seems to have been no catastrophic crack of the pipe.
The town, alongside with the legal counsel and consultants for the Surdi’s and Forest Ridge continue to investigate the cause of the slide. We look forward to functioning with all parties concerned to reach an suitable outcome.”
Similar: City of Bellevue sues landslide victims so they can access, demolish dwelling
Asbestos cement is produced up of 12 to 15% asbestos. The city’s utility map reveals other drinking water mains through the community ended up installed making use of asbestos cement product. Bellevue has already used quite a few hundreds of thousands of dollars changing “getting older” asbestos cement h2o mains across the city for yrs, in accordance to 2013 preparing documents. Bellevue Utilities also slated quite a few AC substitute jobs in 2020 as part of its money advancement ideas, which include the spot close to the landslide.
Bellevue Utilities offers element on protection assistance in its Water Engineering Specifications, printed in January 2021. The document involves information about basic safety actions relating to asbestos cement.
Relevant: Do you reside around a landslide? DNR map tracks parts of slide threat throughout Western WA
This is a producing story.
