Scofield backs away from claim against city

The Libby Baptist Church has backed away from its claim against the City of Libby arising from flood damage sustained in March 2014. Pastor Darwin Scofield told the City Council Monday evening the flooding was likely caused by logging on an adjacent property, not by the city’s work on the Cabinet Heights sewer project.

The issue began in May 2014, when representatives from the church submitted a document to the City Council detailing three flooding events of March 6, 2014, March 9, 2014 and March 17, 2014. The document provided an estimate of $40,000 in clean-up costs, but no supporting documentation was provided to the city.

Pastor Scofield filed a claim with the city’s insurer, Montana Municipal Interlocal Authority, which was denied June 4, 2014.

“The facts surrounding your damage do not reveal a breach of ordinary care on the part of the City of Libby,” the denial letter stated. “The immediate cause of damage was due to factors outside of the City of Libby’s control in the exercise of ordinary care.”

Scofield then filed a claim with the The Cincinnati Insurance Companies, insurer of the city’s contractor, Edstrom Construction. That claim was also denied.

Claims specialist Darin Thompson wrote: “Due to the circumstances, we have found no liability on the part of our insured for this incident. In the absence of such liability, we will be unable to may any payments. With this letter we respectfully deny any liability claim you would or could bring against our insured.”

Scofield escalated the issue Feb. 9, making his case directly to the Libby City Council at a public meeting. In his prepared remarks to the City Council, the pastor claimed the flood and resulting damage were the direct result of faulty engineering work and materials used on the sewer project.

“As to the cause of the devastating event, without exception, every objective opinion that has been entertained concludes the same thing: The drainage engineering and materials used to prevent flood risk associated with the sewer line the city installed uphill from Libby Baptist Church facilities was faulty,” Scofield said.

Mayor Doug Roll, without admitting faulty or liability, offered to negotiate a settlement with the church, on the condition that an objective, professional engineering report supported some level of liability on the part of the city. The cost of the engineering review was to be borne by the church, not the city.

The result of that analysis is what Scofield presented to the City Council Monday evening. Although specific details were not provided, Scofield not only retracted his request for compensation from the city, but also offered an apology.

“Speaking on behalf of the Libby Baptist Church team, Eric Kaplan, Dick Miner, Jerry Bennett and myself, I am grateful for the fair treatment of the subcommittee, chaired by Robin Benson and then Brent Teske, has given us over the last year,” he said. “I would like to commend Bill Bischoff for his role as well. We would also like to thank the community for their care and support. I, personally, am grateful for their vote of confidence and hope I can continue to garner it. Let me conclude by saying that I am sorry for any undue troubles or stress this has caused. Please feel free to share any personal grievances you may have and I will offer what help I can.”

Councilman Brent Teske thanked Pastor Scofield for his honesty during the process.

“I respect your honesty,” Teske said. “You guys were open and up-front and easy to work with and deal with. There wasn’t a lot of emotion and passion in the situation, even though it was a tense situation. It was really an honor to work with you.”