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Ashland will pay $341,000 to end sewage case Wednesday Oct 19, 2016 at 5:38 PM Oct 19, 2016 at 5:38 PM By John Darling for the Tidings The city of Ashland has agreed to settle for $341,000 the claim for damages caused when a loose brick backed up sewage into a Morton Street house last October, causing major damage to walls, floors and furniture. The Ashland City Council Tuesday voted unanimously to award the maximum tort claim allowed by the city charter, based on the three adults on the title, thus avoiding a potentially long and expensive lawsuit, city attorney David Lohman said today. The city previously had paid the family $25,000 in emergency funding. The accident “financially devastated” owners Federico Behncke and his wife Caroline Shaffer, Behncke said in a Tidings article Wednesday, published before knowledge of the council decision. Richard Elmore, her former husband, is also on the title. Sewage flowed into the house for more than four hours, leaving a half-foot of toxic, potentially disease-causing waste that forced the family out of the house for seven months. “We tried to go as far as we could within the charter and tort claims limit and we recognized a suit would take a lot of time,” says Lohman. “They would not get paid for a long time and it might well have been appealed. That kind of delay and rancor are not in anyone’s interest.” Some 75 percent of the amount will be paid by the City & County Insurance Services, a pool into which most municipalities in Oregon pay premiums. The rest will be paid from the city’s water fund and will mean delay of other capital expenditures from that fund, he adds. Council members have had little to say, but expressed sympathy toward the family for the effects of the accident, which damaged the home's walls up to 8 feet high. “We were advised not to comment (because it involved pending litigation)," said Councilor Stefani Seffinger. "I offer words of comfort to them, as survivors of an event that ruined a house.” The homeowners put the offer on the table and the city accepted it, said Lohman. “I’m sure they are not satisfied," he said. "There were lots of negotiations. I’m sure they recognize the city’s pretty significant limitations. I’m sure they feel they should have gotten more and no one in the city is unsympathetic to them. It was a really horrible situation for them to deal with and we understand that.” Behncke declined comment, pending working out of details, but did say, “We, of course, are not being made whole. We hope the end is in sight. We will live in the house for the foreseeable future. "It’s been a terrible year," he continued, noting the family owes the cleanup company $100,000. "The remediation company is charging us a thousand dollars a month interest. Pressure is coming from everywhere. We can’t deal with it anymore.” His lawyer, Darrel Jarvis, said details will be settled in a few days and agreed with Behncke that the deal “does not make them whole," but said potential future litigation costs and getting closure were major incentives in the family offering the settlement. “They are resilient people and this is a big financial impact on them,” Jarvis said. The tort claims limit for public bodies has been tested in court and upheld, Jarvis said, and changing that would be “a matter of public policy for the Legislature to take up, and hopefully they will.” Lohman said the city, in paying the three homeowners, did not accept responsibility for the accident. “We don’t know who is responsible. A brick in the sewer is responsible. "It’s a relatively old system," Lohman said. "Some manholes are lined with bricks. Periodically, one comes down. We have a schedule for maintenance of them but like most cities, we’re not keeping up with infrastructure. We’re doing the best we can. People can speculate on the cause, but to say the city is responsible is not accurate.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected].