Where Can I find documentation for Court 1

[ashhafPE]

I need valid documentation for court: this is the Case;
A block that has homes on both sides of the street. One end is uphill and the other is downhill. Somewhere closer to the end of the block (downhill), a builder built a retaining wall and slowed down the runoff which in turn caused flooding in the residence upstream. Other side argument is that original terrain shows runoff to the rear of the residence. However, there are homes to the rear of these homes. Where can I find laws for drainage.

 

[civilperson]

Your description is hydraulically suspect. Most subdivisions have lot drainage to either the front or to the rear. If the designed grading was to put runoff onto adjacent lot then the plat would not be approved or the buyer could get recourse from the civil designer. A retaining wall that is below the flooded lot can not be the cause of the flooded residence in a legal sense since the correct route of the storm flow is to the street in front or to the alley/drainage way in back by way of the flooded owner's land.

 

[ashhafPE]

Owner A is suing Bulder B.
The street is higher. The drainage of the original contours show everything draining at an angle. The owner A never had any problems until the retaining wall from B was constructed. The new home B is finally finished. There are homes behind these homes. So basically, all the runoff did go thru the properties B downstream from each other and as more homes are being developed the more the runoff is going to increase and someone is going to have to design a storm sewer system to pickup all the runoff and direct it to the creek. Adding retaining walls and blocking drainage is not a solution in my opinion.

 

[TerryScan]

You state there is a law suit. Your ID implies you are a PE. The attorney's involved are the one's who should be researching the laws regarding drainage. This could be found in code, but is also established through case law. It can vary from state to state.

Documentation from the engineering perspective is more a question of evidence of where runoff does occur and where it used to occur.

 

[cvg]

additional documentation would be locating the drainage report that owner B did for his grading and drainage permit. If he didn't do a report or get a permit for the wall then you have the "evidence" you need.

 

[MissouriPE]

There is a whole book on this as it relates to Missouri state and case law and I imagine it varies a lot state to state. I agree that the attorneys should be doing this research. But in MO (according to the City Attorney I worked with a couple years ago when I was a City stormwater engineer), the laws have progressed from past theories of stormwater being a "common enemy" to what they refer to as a "reasonable person" doctrine...in other words "What would a reasonable person expect to happy in this situation?" The problem is that the jury is not always "reasonable". My personal approach to nearly all storm drainage problems is "If you don't like where the water is going (ie. upstream house), or not going (if the problem is more or less standing water), then where do you want it to go and how can you get it there?" The water has to get to the low end of the site in some route. The best defense (or offense depending on which side you are working for) is to answer how what path the water SHOULD take and what is preventing it from doing so.

 

[dik]

Many jurisdictions have Drainage Act(s) and you might be surprised what you find. In some areas, a builder owes no duty of care to those up/downstream...

Dik

 

[ashhafPE]

Thank you to all.