Palmer wins drainage lawsuit brought by homeowners

PALMER — Four years of litigation over a drainage problem is drawing to a close with a pair of homeowners ordered to pay $90,000 to cover the city’s legal fees.

According to a ruling Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen handed down in November, John and Xong Beeson, who own a home at Helen Drive and Etsy Drive, were unable to prove that their flooded basement was the city’s fault.

The Beesons have lived there since 1985. There were drainage issues then that in 1987 the Mat-Su Borough installed a French drain and a drywell to address. But that solution no longer works.

It was disputed at trial if John Beeson had pumped water onto a neighboring property from 1998 to 2005. Beeson denied he did, but neighbors and a public works official disagreed.

“The court does not find Mr. Beeson credible on those two points, but instead finds that the Beesons had routinely pumped water from their property across the road prior to 2005,” according to Kristiansen’s ruling.

The city of Palmer annexed the neighborhood in 2003 and in 2005 began the Helen Drive Water Project, which brought city water service to the neighborhood and also repaved a portion of Helen Drive.

The Beesons claimed that the project raised the level of the road, which they contended meant more water was trapped on their side.

In 2006, the Beesons’ garage flooded. In 2007, the flooding was much worse, significantly damaging the garage and basement.

“During the 2007 event, the city assisted the Beesons by attempting to steam the drywell to help the drainage. When that failed, the city brought in loads of sand and also pumped water off the property and onto an adjacent landowner’s property,” Kristiansen writes.

But eventually, that neighboring landowner put a stop to it.

In September 2008, the Beesons sued the city, blaming their work on the road for the flooding.

In December 2008, the city offered to settle the case for $10,000 without admitting it had done anything wrong. Given that legal fees from then on would end up costing $163,805, that would seem to have been the cheaper option. Usually in this kind of litigation, the city’s insurance company insists on an attempt at a settlement.

Regardless, the Beesons rejected that settlement. Trial in the case took place in October 2012, with Kristiansen’s ruling issued a month later.

Kristiansen found that the Beesons did not prove the city had done anything wrong and even found the city didn’t raise the level of the road at all.

There was another contention — that the city should have put in a culvert when it repaved the road. Kristiansen said state law requires the city’s mistake to be the result of the city’s actions rather than its inaction.

In other words, the city can’t be held liable for not addressing an existing issue with a project that wasn’t aimed at addressing that issue.

This week Kristiansen is expected to rule on how much the Beesons owe the city for attorney’s fees. The law firm representing the city pegged its fees at $163,805, but state law only allows for half of that.

So that would be $81,902.50 plus additional costs of $8,660.56 for a total potential liability of $90,563.06.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.