The borough of Haddonfield in Camden County will be forced to pay nearly $21.8 million to residents who had homes severely damaged by flooding after a storm, a New Jersey jury ruled.
[Editor’s Note: We won’t be surprised if residents of other towns, also periled by inadequate stormwater control systems, file similar legal suits.]
After a 10-day trial in the Camden County Superior Court, the jury reached a unanimous decision on March 21, determining Haddonfield’s stormwater management system was unsafe.
By Nyah Marshall | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The jury also found the municipality failed to address its stormwater runoff issue, causing “stormwater, fecal matter, and other wastewater materials” to enter and destroy four homes in the borough, according to court documents.
“These are very good people who had their lives turned upside down by what happened to them,” Robert D. Sokolove, the attorney representing the impacted homeowners, said in a statement.
“Their lives were decimated, and they are still fighting to regain the normalcy they had before the flood,” Sokolove added.
A spokesperson for Haddonfield said on Thursday that the borough’s administration had no comment about the ruling.
