Former City Attorney sues Troy

Heather McDougall, Troy’s former City Attorney, has filed suit, representing herself, against the city alleging private nuisance, trespass and conversion and requesting $17,500 in damages, plus unspecified attorney costs and fees. The suit also names Silver Spur LLC and its owners, William Warrick and Shelly Warrick, and Lloyd Dean Nelson as defendants. She also asked the court to order the removal of the lines.

According to McDougall’s complaint, the city installed water and sewer service to a property at 113 Spokane Avenue in June, 2015. The property, jointly owned by Nelson and the Warricks, was annexed into the city earlier, with an agreement that the city provide services. McDougall alleges the lines installed to provide service to the property trespass on her property at 111 Spokane Avenue, which borders the Warrick/Nelson property.

“Between March 11 and June 18, 2015, the City of Troy crew put in a water and sewer line into Warrick/Nelson house,” McDougall wrote in the complaint. “Heather McDougall was out of the country and does not know the exact time frame as to the installation of the water and sewer lines. Upon Heather’s return in mid-June, she noticed the settling of the ground between the two properties due to the installation of the water and sewer service lines.”

After investigating, McDougall determined the lines were installed on her property, and she took her complaint to Troy Mayor Darren Coldwell.

“On Oct. 26, 2015, at a conversation beginning at 2:40 p.m., Darren Coldwell, acting as the City of Troy Mayor, acknowledged that the water service line is located on Heather’s property,” she wrote in the complaint.

Coldwell admits the line was incorrectly installed by the city, and is on McDougall’s property. In the city’s response to the complaint, the city’s attorney Marcel Quinn, acknowledges the city’s error, but also asserts Coldwell made the offer to move the line once the mistake was brought to his attention, but the offer was refused by McDougall.

“The City admits the allegations contained in Paragraph 24 of the complaint, and further alleges that the city offered to relocate the water line off of the plaintiff’s property, which offer was denied,” Quinn wrote.

When asked why she declined the city’s initial offer to move the line, McDougall merely responded she was under the impression the city was going to be removing the lines shortly.

“I have not received the city’s response yet, but it is my understanding that the city is going to remove the water service line Monday (Dec. 13) and then remove the sewer service line some time after that,” McDougall wrote in an email to The Western News.

Coldwell confirmed it is the city’s intent to remove the line, which is one inch wide and buried five feet deep, Monday, weather permitting. He also said if McDougall denies crews access to the property to remove the line, they would cut and cap it outside her boundary and relocate the line around her property.

McDougall said the damage figure was derived from research into similar cases.

“The water service line runs parallel to my property line and damaged approximately 85 feet of my property,” she wrote. “The sewer service line damaged a 13 by 10 square foot area. I chose those figures because I researched previous trespass cases for damages.”

The suit also makes seeks unspecified damages from Silver Spur LLC regarding a complaint about a paving project in their parking lot.

“The Spur has entered Heather’s property when its contractor built up the parking lot and had the slope of the parking lot on Heather’s property,” McDougall wrote in the complaint. “The Spur removed the slope between Nov. 3 and (Nov.) 7 when Heather was out of town, but there is still minor cleanup work to be done. It remained on the land for two months. Heather is entitled to an abatement of the trespass as well as damages from the trespass until it is abated.”

McDougall said it was more efficient for her to file the two cases together, although the complaint itself contains no link between the two trespassing incidents, except ownership of the bordering property.

“Shelly Warrick, Bill Warrick and Dean Nelson own the house next door and the Silver Spur, so for efficiency reasons, I thought it was better to combine the two cases,” she wrote in an email.

Shelly Warrick said she was saddened and confused by McDougall’s action.

“It’s a tragic thing that it’s come to this,” she said. “We tried to be good neighbors. I don’t know what to say. I’m just baffled, I don’t understand it all myself.I just makes me really really sad that it’s come to this. We never did anything to intentionally upset anyone.”

Coldwell said he was unable to comment in too much detail, as the litigation is still pending, but did say he wished an amicable solution could have been reached.

“I just wish we could have come to a conclusion that didn’t involve going to court,” he said.