April 2024

Water, Water Everywhere but Liability is Not Always What You Think By Damon M. Kress, Esq., McGovern Legal Services, LLC

“When flooding damages a resident’s home or property disputes can arise...”

E xtreme weather events are becoming much more frequent, and much more intense. The torrential rains accompanying these storms can cause a community to flood. When flooding damages a resident’s home or property disputes can arise over whether the association must compensate the resident for their losses. Thankfully, the Appellate Division’s unpublished decision in Society Hill at University Heights Condominium Association, III, Inc. v. Sloan, 2023 WL 3487069 (App. Div. 2023) (“Society Hill”) provides valuable guidance regarding how the courts evaluate liability in these types of losses. In Society Hill, the Plaintiff, Lucy Sloan owned a con dominium in a community in Newark, New Jersey. Ms. Sloan’s unit had two stories, but the entrance to the first floor was constructed a few feet below the sidewalk outside. Over the years, during heavy rainstorms, an apparent problem with the City’s stormwater manage ment system adjacent to the community began causing

stormwater to back up around Ms. Sloan’s unit. The stormwater eventually flooded the first floor of Ms. Sloan’s unit several times through the front door because it was below grade. Ms. Sloan complained to the association about the flooding, and the association took certain steps to try to stop the flooding into her unit, but none of the associa tion’s efforts were successful. The contractor the associa tion hired to investigate the flooding even suggested that the City’s storm sewer piping near the community was too small to manage the volume of water generated by the increasingly severe weather events. Frustrated by the association’s inability to stop the flooding, Mr. Sloan eventually stopped paying her monthly maintenance fees, and began depositing the money into an escrow account instead. When the association eventually sued Ms. Sloan for the unpaid assessments, Ms. Sloan responded to the lawsuit by counter-suing the associa tion for the flooding damage. CONTINUES ON PAGE 14

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APRIL 2024