Clarke County Democrat

Mixed verdict in Fulton flooding case

Jury renders compensatory damages but only $10,000 punitive damages per plaintiff in Fulton flooding case



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Photo made the morning after the April 2018 flood shows Kopper’s materials, other debris lodged under the Dr. Jackson Dozier Bridge in Fulton.

Photo made the morning after the April 2018 flood shows Kopper’s materials, other debris lodged under the Dr. Jackson Dozier Bridge in Fulton.

It was a mixed verdict for both the plaintiffs and the defense following a two-week long civil trial in Clarke County Circuit Court that came to an end last Friday, April 9. A pole and piling company was found guilty of contributing to the flooding of several Fulton homes in April 2018 and ordered to pay compensatory damages. The punitive damages awarded were far less than what had been asked.

While jurors instructed Koppers

Utility and Industrial Products, Inc. to pay varying amounts in compensatory damages for the loss and/or damages to homes and loss of personal items, they leveled much smaller punitive damage assessments, only $10,000 for each of nine plaintiffs. The plaintiff attorneys had requested much larger punitive damages amounts in their closing statements.

The jury returned a total verdict of $543,000, including $453,000 in compensatory damages and $90,000 in punitive damages.

Although the punitive damages were far less than the millions that had been requested, the compensatory amounts were in line with an appraiser’s figures.

The verdicts were returned against Koppers Utility and Industrial Products, Inc., one of three owners of the pole mill named in the original suit. No verdict was returned against Allen Horton, the local mill manager who was also a named defendant.

The jury was out for about two hours before returning the verdict.

Homes flooded

Fulton residents whose homes were damaged during the April 14-15, 2018 rainstorm that saw Bassetts Creek overflow and flood their homes sued Koppers, which has a pole and piling mill on the bank of the creek, saying the mill’s poles and debris washed off of their yard and many caught under the Dr. Jack Dozier Bridge on Highway 178, helping to block the creek and slow the water flow, thereby causing or contributing to the flooding of homes.

Lots of testimony

Testimony during the trial was offered by Clarke County Sheriff Ray Norris, Fulton Mayor Mike Norris, Clarke County Emergency Management Agency Director Roy Waite, professional hydraulic engineers brought in for both sides, firefighters and Fulton residents, including plaintiffs in the case.

In their closing arguments Friday, attorneys for both sides summed up the days of testimony and made their final pitches to the jury.

Tatum Turner, one of several plaintiff attorneys, said Koppers had a duty to keep its poles on the mill site but failed to take steps to do that.

A critical issue centered around when the poles and “cut-offs,” the ends of poles considered waste, made it into the creek. Plaintiffs contended it was early, as the water was rising. Weyman W. McCranie, attorney for Koppers, would counter, saying that the poles only floated off the yard as the waters receded.

Turner cited Mayor Norris’ and Sheriff Norris’ testimonies that they saw “poles everywhere” in the creek and around the bridge early on the evening of Saturday, April 14, as the creek was risin g

Turner said Koppers owed it to the community to have the poles and other materials secured. “I thought safety was more important than money to Koppers,” he said.

Turner went over the actual damages of the plaintiffs. Some lost possessions, some had significant structural damage and some lost their entire homes. The individual values ranged from around $50,000 up to $200,000.

Additionally, Turner cited the mental anguish suffered, from the loss of family photographs to being fearful for themselves and their children during the flood and apprehensions that lingered in bad weather afterwards.

“There is no legal yardstick for mental anguish,” Turner told jurors, saying that was their decision entirely.

Punitive damages are leveled separately and are to serve to punish for wrongdoing. Turner said that the mill manager, Allen Horton, was a good man and although a defendant, was only doing what his employer told him to do. Turner suggested letting him off but to assess the three corporate entities, Koppers, Inc., Koppers Utility and Industrial Products and/or Cox Wood of Alabama, Inc., all related companies, an additional $300,000 per plaintiff in punitive damages.

Attorney McCranie, said Kopper’s was a good member of the Fulton community and that the poles did not dam the bridge and contribute to the flooding. The testimony of several firefighters supported that, “unless the firefighters are lying,” he said.

‘An act of God’

“It was an act of God…an unprecedented flood event,” he argued.

“I feel sorry for these folks, I really do,” he said of the plaintiffs. He said he could understand their losses because his home burned when he was a teenager. “We lost everything, but we didn’t sue anybody,” he said.

He said Koppers adheres to industrial standards regarding the operation of the mill and the storage of products. He also said there was little warning of the impending storm, only on Friday night prior to the Saturday storm.

“The poles didn’t cause the flooding, the poles moved because of the flooding,” he said.

He said he didn’t believe the plaintiffs had proven their case and reminded jurors that the homes flooded because they were in a flood zone.

“It was an act of God but I’m not blaming God for it,” McCranie said, suggesting instead “Mother Nature.”

McCranie said he thought a verdict ought to be rendered entirely for the defense but in the event jurors thought some compensation was due the plaintiffs, he detailed valuations that were for the most part less than theirs.

McCranie asked, “Isn’t the goal to make them [the plaintiffs] whole, not to make them rich?”

Plaintiff attorney Gil Gilmore had the last word to jurors.

‘Homeowners deserving’

“I represent good, hardworking folks. We don’t want something for nothing” but only just compensation, he argued, trying to counter McCranie’s “get rich” comment. He agreed that the flood was an unsual and significant event, one not seen “since Noah got into the ark” but said the evidence was conclusive that the poles impeded the flow of the creek and contributed to the flooding. Poles had not blocked the bridge before or since and homes had not suffered such flooding before or since.

There had been some discussion and accusations of dates and times being altered on cell phone photos and of logs and cutoffs being rolled into the creek, apparently, although it wasn’t specifically said, to create photo opportunities. Gilmore addressed these and said he didn’t even know that such (the altering of dates and times) could be done.

The photos’ time stamp is important, Gilmore told jurors, because it proved how early the poles were in the creek.

He said Koppers was reluctant to even admit that the poles belonged to them but they quick to retrieve them all down the creek after the waters receded because they were worth a lot of money.

“If this was an act of God,” as Koppers claimed, “why don’t they say they are our poles but it is not our fault,” Gilmore asked.

Gilmore said the pole mill was put in Fulton to serve the lumber industry and a company with 180,000 acres of timberland. By contrast, most of the homes that were flooded were built to house people who worked in and served the lumber industry. He said the homeowners needed to be adequately compensated rather than “keep treating people like servants.”

He said Tatum Turner was his partner and co-counsel in the case and a good friend. “But I disagree with Tatum, I think you need to award $500,000 per household in compensatory damages.”

Judge Collins Pettaway of Selma was brought in to hear the case because one of the plaintiffs works in the local court system and both local judges had recused themselves.

Kathy Powell was the jury foreperson.

Verdicts in case

Compensatory and punitive amounts awarded to each plaintiff included:

Phillip and Kim Averitt, $120,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $130,000 total.

Delrick Berry, $20,000 compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $30,000 total.

Bryon and Jim Davis, $32,000 compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $42,000, total.

Charles and Lisa Doby, $43,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $53,000, total.

Joe and Loretta Lewis, $28,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $38,000, total.

Tina McDonald Lewis, $52,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $62,000, total.

Willie and Helen McRand, $37,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $47,000, total.

Robert Lee and Clara Thomas, $45,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $55,000, total.

Michelle S. Thompson, $76,000, compensatory; $10,000, punitive; $86,000, total.

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