Two sue Bryant a 2nd time over ditch

For the second time in two years, a Bryant couple is suing the city and elected officials for failing to complete a drainage ditch the city dug in the couple’s yard five years ago.

The lawsuit filed by Edward and Quinn Collins of 1716 Augusta Cove says that the city abandoned a ditch it excavated in their yard after heavy rains caused flooding in 2008.

The ditch is a safety hazard and eyesore, the couple argues.

They filed the lawsuit in Saline County Circuit Court on Jan. 30 and are seeking damages on four counts, alleging the city created a nuisance, trespassed and violated their civil rights.

The city, its current and former mayor, and its current and former aldermen are alllisted as defendants.

“We were served with that last Thursday, and I’ll be discussing it at the City Council meeting on Feb. 28,” City Attorney Chris Madison said this week. “My anticipation is that I and Municipal League attorneys will be representing all of them because they all acted in their capacity as a city official.”

In the Collinses’ previous lawsuit over the ditch, a circuit court jury awarded them $70,000, but the Arkansas Court of Appeals overturned the ruling in 2011.

That original lawsuit sought to have a judge enforce the terms of an easement agreement signed by the Collinses and city officials that detailed how the city would put a concrete or metal drain in the excavation and restore the area.

The appeals court decided that since the Bryant CityCouncil failed to adopt the easement agreement when it was presented in 2009, the council wasn’t liable for the ditch or the promised restorations.

Now the couple is returning to court to claim that ditch, which is 150 feet long by 7 feet wide and 4 feet deep, is a public nuisance.

It covers about half of their property, has deteriorated, partially collapsed and is overgrown with vegetation that has clogged the drainage and caused flooding, their complaint says.

“The ditch interferes with the Collins’ use and enjoyment of their property ... constitutes a hazard to the health and safety of the Collins, their children and to others, [and] standing water in the ditch provides a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other varmints,” the complaint states.

The city completed asimilar ditch it dug at a home across the street from the Collinses. In doing so, city workers trespassed on the Collinses’ property, they said.

The Collinses’ lawyer, Richard Mays of Little Rock, isn’t sure why the city fixed the neighbors’ yard and not the Collinses’.

“It would have made sense to do both and I think the city had every opportunity,” he said.

Madison said it was because the Collinses had already filed the 2009 lawsuit when city workers began completing the ditch in the neighbors’ yard.

“Because it was in litigation, the city didn’t believe it was appropriate to do repair work to the Collinses’ ditch,” Madison said. “The city offered to do repair work and to settle the [2009 lawsuit] and Mr. Collins refused.”

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 02/24/2013

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