your home, you can hold your neighbor accountable. But when your neighbor is a -city,
it gets more -complicated.
A Park City man says..
the city has been trying to
pass the buck.. for several
years. Not wanting to
spend tens of thousands of
dollars.. over their issue.
So, he called KSL
Investigator Matt Gephardt..
to look into it.. Matt?
Your city’s water main
breaks and it destroys your
home. So how can the city
shirk responsibility? You
ask, KSL Investigates.
FELICIA MARTINEZ: "THIS
RUSHING WATER, BELIEVE IT OR
NOT, IS ON MAIN STREET, PARK
CITY..." Oh, Mark
Stemler believes it - but he’d
rather forget it.... MARK
STEMLER: "THE WATER RACED DOWN
THROUGH THE FLOORBOARDS - INTO
THE CRAWLSPACE" ...that’s
his house right next to a
large sinkhole opened up by a
massive water main break in
July 2019. That break
sent thousands and thousands
of gallons of rushing water
into his century-plus-old
abode... MARK: "RIGHT THROUGH
HERE..."MATT: "IT SEEPED RIGHT
THROUGH THE WALL?"MARK: "WELL,
IT BLEW THE WALL OUT." The
water saturated carpeting and
furniture in the home’s
basement - and it ruined much
of the drywall. MARK: "YOU
CAN SEE THE WATERLINE RIGHT
HERE." As bad as this
looks, the damage to the
home’s foundation below is
much worse... A structural
engineer found the water
pooled up to two feet high...
The saturated soil ultimately
destabilized the foundation
and some of the concrete
footings. GEP: "HOW MUCH IS IT
GOING TO COST TO GET THIS
FOUNDATION BACK TO WHERE IT
NEEDS TO BE?"MARK: "WELL, I’M
THINKING A FEW HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS..." Mark
says his home insurance will
cover the drywall - but it
won’t touch the foundation.
He believes Park City should
be responsible for that, after
all - it was their water main
that broke. MATT "HOW MANY
DOLLARS HAS THE CITY GIVEN YOU
AT THIS POINT?"MARK: "ZERO."
MATT: "THEY HAVEN’T GIVEN YOU
A DIME?MARK: "NOT A DIME."
Ironic since the politicians
seemed to claim responsibility
to KSL back when it happened.
FELICIA MARTINEZ: "PARK CITY
MUNICIPAL SAYS THE CAUSE COULD
BE RELATED TO NEW PAVEMENT
THEY LAID JUST THURSDAY."
...You see just hours before
the water main burst...a road
crew contracted by the city
put down fresh asphalt above
the pipeline, right next to
his house. MARK STEMLER /
HOMEOWNER: "THE GENTLEMEN FROM
THE CITY SAID THE RUPTURE WAS
MOST LIKELY CREATED BY THE
COMPACTION AND THE WORK THAT
HAD BEEN DONE WITH THE ASPHALT
THAT DAY." Making matters
worse, that crew covered lids
in the street that would have
given responders quick access
to the main’s valves without
marking their location...
MARK: "THEY SPENT OVER THREE
HOURS TRYING TO LOCATE THEM,
SO THEY COULD GET THEM OPEN SO
THEY COULD TURN THEM OFF."
On the night of the break,
public works and fire crews
had to dig through that new
asphalt to find those
valves.... Mark has filed
suit against Park City and its
asphalt paving contractor,
alleging their amount to gross
negligence. But does his
argument - hold water? BOB
SYKES / "I THINK HE HAS A
CASE, YOU KNOW..." Attorney
Robert Sykes does not
represent Mark Stemler or Park
City or its asphalt paving
contractor, but he researches
and practices government
claims law. He says Utah
law makes it very difficult to
sue a city. It’s called
Governmental Immunity, and
basically you have to prove
the city was negligent, in
order to win. ROBERT SYKES /
"IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU’VE
GOT THE DEFECTIVE, DANGEROUS
CONDITION OF A HIGHWAY OR A
ROAD. OKAY. AND THE REASON YOU
HAVE THAT IS BECAUSE THEY
COVER IT UP AND DIDN’T GET IN
THERE FAST ENOUGH. SO THEY
COULD FIX SOMETHING." Park
City officials told media that
the "LIKELY" cause was a
broken valve.LINDA JAGER/ PARK
CITY MUNICIPAL JULY 12, 2019
"WHAT WE ARE FINDING RIGHT NOW
IS THE VALVES WERE SOMEWHAT
RUSTED AND THAT WAS
CONTRIBUTING TO THE INCIDENT
LAST NIGHT." ROBERT SYKES /
"I WOULD ARGUE THAT A RUSTED
VALVE IS NEGLIGENCE." SYKES:
"BECAUSE THAT’S VERY
PREDICTABLE THAT YOU TURN A
RUSTY VALVE AND IT BREAKS."
And not helping Park City’s
case is this: FELICIA
MARTINEZ: "ANYONE WITH OF
COURSE FLOOD DAMAGE IS
ENCOURAGED TO CALL THE
CITY..." ROBERT SYKES /
"THEY’RE MAKING AN ADMISSION
AGAINST INTEREST. THAT’S
ADMISSIBLE IN COURT." So,
what does Park City have to
say about all this? Well,
nothing to us - they say they
don’t comment on pending legal
matters. They have
commented in court. What
are they telling a judge -
yeah, you guessed it -
governmental immunity. As
KSL Investigators dug deeper,
we found issues are certain
not to end in a Park City
courtroom or in Mark’s
crawlspace. Take a look at
this 20-18 survey of
over 300 utilities in the U-S
and Canada by Utah State
University researchers found
water main breaks surged 27%
overall between 20-12 and 20-
18. At that time, only
58-percent of those utilities
said they had a regular pipe
replacement program. Most
of those old water mains, have
only gotten older since....
It’s not hard to find
examples. This past July,
a water main break impacted 15
homes in Murray...impacted but
not flooded gushing water
Another created this geyser
near downtown Salt Lake in
September. That same day,
this broken Park City water
main sent mud and water onto
Snow Creek Plaza’s parking
lot. And in October, a
50-year-old water main in St.
George burst, sending water
into a home’s basement. As
for Mark Stemler and his
damaged home - well, he vows
to keep fighting Park City’s
city hall. MARK STEMLER"IF
YOU DAMAGE YOUR NEIGHBOR’S
PROPERTY. YOU DON’T LOOK FOR
LEGAL ANGLES TO TRY TO AVOID
PAYING FOR IT. YOU GO IN AND
MAKE IT RIGHT."
Since the
promo for this story started airing, I’ve heard from people all over the state who say
that a city water main damaged
their home and the city
avoided paying to help - and
we found court cases where
people sued their city - and
lost. An insurance expert
told me that damage from an
outside water main is
typically NOT covered by a
standard homeowners policy.
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