Holden v. Edwards Specialties Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 December 2009
• Docket Number: 2080947.
• Citation: 62 So.3d 1029
• Parties: Jimmie HOLDENv.EDWARDS SPECIALTIES, INC.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

62 So.3d 1029

Jimmie HOLDEN

v.EDWARDS SPECIALTIES, INC.

2080947.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

Dec. 18, 2009.Certiorari Denied Nov. 12, 2010

Alabama Supreme Court 1090418.

Chris Messervy of Clark, Smith & Messervy, PC, Huntsville, for appellant.Judith E. Dolan of Waldrep, Stewart & Kendrick, LLC, Birmingham, for appellee.THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

Jimmie Holden appeals from a summary judgment entered by the Madison Circuit Court in favor of Edwards Specialties, Inc. (“ESI”). For the reasons stated herein, we reverse the summary judgment and remand the cause.

Since 1993, Holden has resided in Madison County on property that he owns. The property is located outside the corporate limits of the City of Madison. In 2003, ESI began developing as a subdivision certain real property it owned in the City of Madison. This development was known as Windsor Parke. As part of this development, ESI constructed and developed road curbs and other improvements, including a water-detention pond located at the southeastern corner of Windsor Parke. Windsor Parke is at a higher elevation than Holden's property. Surface water in Windsor Parke is channeled by roads, curbs, and pipes and collected into two detention ponds located on the southern boundary of Windsor Parke. The detention pond at the southeast corner of Windsor Parke ejects water through a single pipe into a ditch that flows through Holden's property.

On April 15, 2008, Holden filed an action against ESI. He alleged that ESI's development of Windsor Parke had increased the quantity and velocity of water that was channeled onto his property, causing flooding on his property. He alleged that the increased flow of water onto his property had caused damage to his house, including damage to the floor insulation, the HVAC ductwork, the floor registers, the crawl space, and the floor structure. He also alleged that the flooding had destroyed his central-air-conditioning unit, had caused his property to erode, and had resulted in mold in his house. Holden alleged that the flooding was ongoing and that ESI had refused to remedy it. In the first count of his complaint, Holden alleged that the flooding of his property by ESI constituted a trespass. In the second count, he alleged that ESI's development of Windsor Parke had caused surface water to be channeled onto his property, causing damage thereto. In his third count, he asserted that ESI's actions constituted wantonness. In his final count, Holden asserted that he was entitled to an injunction requiring that ESI prevent the channeling of surface water onto his property. ESI filed an answer in which it denied the material allegations of Holden's complaint.

On January 15, 2009, ESI filed a motion for a summary judgment. It argued that Holden's trespass claim failed as a matter of law because the evidence demonstrated that the volume and velocity of surface water discharged from the area on which Windsor Parke was developed actually decreased after the development of Windsor Parke. ESI argued that this decrease indicated that it had implemented its drainage system in a reasonable and lawful manner and, moreover, that it negated Holden's cause of action for channeling surface water onto his property. ESI argued that, because Holden's trespass claim failed, his wantonness claim failed as well. Finally, ESI argued that Holden was not entitled to the injunction he sought.

ESI attached to its brief in support of its summary-judgment motion, among other things, the affidavit of Billy Hayden Smith, a licensed engineer. After recounting his credentials, Smith indicated that he had inspected the property at issue, had reviewed documents and materials associated with the development of Windsor Parke, and had prepared drainage calculations pertaining to the development of Windsor Parke. He opined that the post-development detention pond located at the southeast corner of Windsor Parke had actually reduced the amount of peak runoff through the culvert located on Holden's property from 61.3 cubic feet per second to 58.2 cubic feet per second. ESI also attached to its brief excerpts from Holden's deposition in which he testified that water had entered the crawl space of his house on one or two occasions before the development of Windsor Parke.

On February 23, 2009, Holden filed a response to ESI's summary-judgment motion in which he argued that Windsor Parke's drainage system interfered with his possessory rights with regard to his property “by completely flooding his property and home during heavy rains,” which had caused substantial damage to his property. To his response, Holden attached additional excerpts from his deposition in which he had testified that he first began experiencing the problems listed in his complaint immediately after ESI completed construction of the detention pond at issue. Holden also attached to his response the affidavit of Bryant Mastin, who resided on the property immediately north of Holden's property. Among other things, Mastin stated:

“When Windsor Park[e] was built, a drainage system was built that emptied water from a detention pond into an existing ditch that ran between my property and [Holden]'s property. When it rains heavily, I have observed the ditch overflow and water flooding my front and back yard as well as [Holden]'s front and back yards and other surrounding neighbors. Windsor Park[e] was built at a higher level than our property which has further caused water to enter onto our land. Windsor Park[e] contains a detention pond that gathers water from the Windsor Park[e] subdivision. The pond drains into the ditch that runs between our properties. This drainage system was developed by [ESI]. I have observed the water from the detention pond drain into the ditch. When it rains heavily, too much water flows from the detention pond into the ditch, and the ditch cannot maintain the amount of water flowing from the detention pond. Basically, the ditch is too small for the amount of water flowing from the detention pond, or the amount of water permitted to flow from the detention pond into the ditch is too much for the ditch to handle. When the water overflows, my property is flooded in both the front and back yards. I cannot even come out of my house. I have brought gravel in to fill my yard but the water washed it away. The water rises high enough on my property to flood the floorboards of my vehicles. This did not occur prior to the Windsor Park[e] subdivision. [Holden]'s property floods similar to my property. However, [Holden]'s property floods worse than mine because [Holden]'s property is at the bottom of the incline into Windsor Park[e]. The run-off from the subdivision gathers in [Holden]'s yard.”

Holden also attached to his response the affidavit of Reginald Williams, another of his neighbors, in which Williams provided his educational background, indicated that he was an engineering manager in an automobile plant, and opined that the flooding of which Holden complained was caused by the design of the drainage system in Windsor Parke. He stated that he had made his concerns known to city officials and representatives from ESI but that nothing had been done in response to his concerns.

On April 1, 2009, ESI filed motions to strike the affidavits of Mastin and Williams. In its motion to strike Mastin's affidavit, ESI argued that Mastin's affidavit contained “speculative and conclusory statements” that Mastin was not qualified to make, including his statement that the ditch was too small to handle the amount of water flowing into it from the detention pond. It argued that...