ANN ARBOR, MI — Laurie Lounsbury said she found an inch of water in her basement last August due to a city sewer backup caused by tree roots growing into a sewer pipe.
City Council was divided this past week on whether to honor the homeowner’s nearly $12,000 insurance claim against the city for personal items lost as a result of the incident, voting 8-3 to deny it.
Lounsbury, who said she’s disappointed in the decision and now considering her legal options, shared her tale of the sewer backup with council members before the vote.
“My claim is different than other claims,” she said. “I am not asking the city to pay for the sewer backup damage. I am only asking to be compensated for the salvageable items that were unlawfully taken from my basement by Servpro workers, which followed the sewer backup.”
After the sewer backup, the city sent a public works supervisor to her house with a document saying the city, as a courtesy, wanted to clean her basement, and Servpro, a cleanup and restoration company, did the work, Lounsbury said.
“Servpro representatives informed me they were authorized agents of the city of Ann Arbor and told me the city’s insurance would compensate me for my losses,” she said.
Servpro made her sign a document saying she pre-approved of all items being unsalvageable before the company would enter her Miller Avenue home, but she was led to believe Servpro would not take every item in the basement, she said.
“I was under extreme duress with my sister who was dying of cancer coming to visit, and my house smelled like sewage,” she said of her state of mind at the time.
Lounsbury said she was away at work while Servpro packed up and took the belongings in her basement and she was appalled to later find they took items she wanted to save.
“The Servpro workers took family heirlooms, band music equipment and power tools that were on shelves, most of which were serviceable and could have been cleaned,” she said.
Some rare first-edition books that only “smelled damp,” including her copy of Jack London’s 1903 novel “The Call of the Wild,” were among the many items she wanted to save, said Lounsbury, a writer and co-founder of Groundcover News.
“I didn’t want to part with them, but the Servpro woman told me I couldn’t get paid by the city’s insurance if I didn’t let her take them,” she said.
“The city has never disputed the value of these lost items, which I carefully determined and presented to the city on an itemized, 14-page spreadsheet, totaling $11,812.”
Servpro spokeswoman Kim Brooks said she couldn’t speak specifically about the incident at Lounsbury’s home because she didn’t have all the details, but generally in a sewer backup situation any porous contaminated items touched by the water would be deemed unsalvageable.
“Industry standards are very strict on this,” she said. “If there was an instance in which a customer wanted to keep any contaminated items, it would require special approval and the customer would be asked to sign a special authorization form.”
Items that were not on the floor and did not touch any water were still taken, Lounsbury said.
All the belongings stored in her basement were removed in her absence and without her permission, Peter Davis, Lounsbury’s attorney, argued in a letter to the city.
Lounsbury submitted a claim against the city for nearly $12,000 for the Aug. 27 incident and the city’s Board of Insurance Administration denied it in February on the basis of governmental immunity, city records show.
Lounsbury appealed the decision, but City Council upheld it in an 8-3 vote Monday night, April 5.
Council Members Kathy Griswold, Jeff Hayner and Ali Ramlawi were opposed to denying the claim.
“I have a difficult time consenting to the notion of governmental immunity,” Hayner said. “I understand what it is, but I think it’s kind of a cop out and so I’m not going to consent to this.”
Governmental immunity for a sewer backup does not extend to “theft,” Lounsbury argued.
“The city’s agents’ taking of my property and falsely claiming all the items were a total loss constitutes willful misconduct,” she told council. “I assume your attorneys will advise you that willful misconduct is gross negligence and therefore an exception to the governmental immunity defense ....”
Council Members Elizabeth Nelson and Linh Song, who serve on the city’s insurance board, declined to comment. Song referred questions to the city attorney’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Christopher Taylor also declined to comment.
In a letter to City Council, Lounsbury’s attorney said the city employee who knocked on Lounsbury’s door and handed her an insurance claim last August told her the city was “obviously guilty” of the sewer backup.
The city’s work order shows it was caused by “a root ball and a large amount of silt/debris,” Davis wrote, arguing that constitutes a sewer defect for which the city is responsible. If Lounsbury takes the case to court, she’ll be able to show that obstruction caused the backup, Davis said, adding she also could seek damages for mental anguish and emotional distress.
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