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Resident seeks city payment for sewer backup
(by Sue Reid - March 31, 2011)
Resident seeks city payment for sewer backup
By SUE REID
Solon City Council's finance committee is referring to public works a moral claim involving a resident whose sewer system backed up into the basement twice.
Moral claims or obligations, which are considered by the finance committee, involve those duties that are valid and binding in conscience but not recognized by the law. The committee will determine if the city was at fault.
Councilman William I. Russo said that Public Works Director James S. Stanek's memo detailing the events leading to the claim offered no clear delineation of who is at fault.
"It's a fairly technical sewer claim," Councilman William D. Mooney said.
Crabtree Lane residents Ron and JoEllen Weingarten alerted the clerk of council both last summer and again in January of problems regarding their sewer system. In January 2010, sewage backed up into their basement, causing a "huge mess and loss of personal property," the Weingartens said. Following the second backup in November, they paid about $782 out of pocket to clean the sewage and disinfect their basement.
City crews went to the property to investigate the situation and found a large amount of gravel up the lateral toward the house.
The Weingartens are suggesting the city caused their problem. Following the second backup, their homeowners insurance was canceled.
"We are now forced to use a special policy, with a high deductible, without sewer backup coverage," the Weingartens said.
"If I can come to the conclusion it was a preventable failure on our part, then it is negligence and I would support the claim, but I can't," Mr. Stanek said. "It would need to be something that is preventable. I don't know what caused the problem, therefore I don't know how it would have been prevented.
"We don't understand what's happened here," Mr. Stanek said. "We've been out to the property and responded on a couple different occasions to blockages.
"We've televised those lines and they are clean so there is not a whole lot we can do about it," he said.
Mr. Stanek said his recommendation would be that the city would not be responsible in a moral claim situation based on the evidence to date.
"We can't be in the sewers watching everything on a regular basis," he said. "We are doing as much as we can with the resources we have."
Sewers on private property are the homeowners' responsibility, Mr. Stanek noted. The city takes responsibility from the riser to the main sewer.
There has been a history of moral claims in the city. In the early 1990s, City Council determined if the city has any involvement that contributed to the loss associated with sewer backups, it should bear some of the responsibility. However, council determined the primary responsibility is on the homeowner and their insurance company.
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