Estate Development v Road Commission of Oakland County

We tried a plaintiff’s case wherein Plaintiff owned property on Mirror Lake, located in Orchard Lake Village, Michigan. Defendant initiated an extensive road construction project on Pontiac Trial. During the project, Defendant blocked the only drain pipe for Mirror Lake, causing Estate Development’s land to flood. Estate Development repeatedly asked Defendant to clear the pipe to relieve the flood waters, but these requests were ignored.

As a result of this flood, which was directly caused by Defendant’s road construction project, the wetlands surrounding Mirror Lake significantly expanded. Michigan law prohibits any construction within close proximity of a wetland. Unfortunately, the wetlands expanded so significantly that Estate Development’s proposed development around Mirror Lake, which was previously approved by Orchard Lake Village, was destroyed.

Following a two-week trial against no less than six defense attorneys and a very demanding Judge, we obtained a jury verdict of $1.7 million. With interest and case evaluation sanctions, however, the total recovery exceeded $2 million.