ES Lawyers, Matt Reilly and Sarah Scholten, win defense verdict in Saunders County

Matt Reilly and Sarah Scholten recently obtained a complete defense verdict in favor of a ES client, a family-owned development company, in a multi-week jury trial in Saunders County, Nebraska. The developer constructed a lakeside residential subdivision in the floodplain of the Lower Platte River near Ashland. In March of 2019, that floodplain was inundated with a destructive 400-year flood. In the course of that broadly catastrophic event, floodwaters rushed into and around the development, indiscriminately causing damage to nearly everything in its path.

After the flood subsided and the water washed away, a homeowner within the development and the neighboring landowner (a large sand and gravel mining company) teamed up to blame the developer. They claimed that when the developer shaped the land to form the lake between 2012 and 2017, it was negligent in how it installed the roads and drainage measures. Together, the plaintiffs claimed approximately $1,000,000 in monetary damages. They also asserted claims for “injunctive relief”; they argued that the Saunders County District Court should force the developer to go back and install drainage measures that were likely to cost several million dollars.

Over the course of two weeks, the jury heard testimony from many fact witnesses, several engineers, and government officials. Mr. Reilly and Ms. Scholten showed to the jury that the developer did everything it was required to do, including hiring engineers to specify exactly what would be done at the lake and then getting the County’s full approval of the engineer’s specifications. They also showed that the flood was so extreme that it was not something that anyone in the developer’s position could reasonably be expected to predict or prevent.

Following trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the developer; the jury found that the developer was not negligent and that the developer did not cause the damages claimed by either the homeowner or the sand and gravel mining company. In addition to the jury’s verdict, the Saunders County District Court also entered an order denying the plaintiffs’ demand for the additional work that they wanted done in the development.

ES Law has teams of talented, dedicated, and experienced lawyers who work relentlessly to bring results like this to their clients. If you are in need of legal assistance, contact ES Law today.