EAST ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge David Dugan ruled on Jan. 5 that 33 Cahokia Heights residents have a right to trial on claims that floods of rain and sewage damage their properties.
Dugan found state law immunizing decisions of local governments against civil suits didn’t apply because the law is not available for nondecisions.
He quoted a Supreme Court precedent that, “Immunizing a nondecision would reward public officials and employees who ignore problems instead of addressing them.”
Dugan found a question of fact as to whether officials made affirmative decisions to not proceed with repairs and allocate funding to other projects.
He also found a question of fact as to whether they even sought to estimate the costs that would be needed to make repairs.
Dugan added that reasonable jurors could infer that officials did not make decisions because they didn’t know they held an obligation to make them in the first place.
Although he concluded residents deserved trial, Dugan vacated an October trial date and stayed proceedings for 90 days or until further order.
He ruled that he would let Cahokia Heights continue negotiating a consent decree with state and federal environmental protection agencies.
“There is no dispute that the environmental agencies are aware and involved with the extensive issues plaguing Plaintiffs’ communities,” he wrote.
Dugan wrote that should they succeed in remediation, he would alleviate any risk of subjecting the parties to conflicting orders.
On the other hand, he expressed concern about claims languishing without concrete and diligent actions.
Dugan found plaintiffs heard reports of negotiations for years without access to the process, direction, or progress of repairs.
He ordered Cahokia Heights and the agencies to report the status of “the alleged forthcoming consent decree” no less frequently than every 90 days.
He wrote that upon the filing of each report he’d evaluate the progress and diligence of the ongoing repairs.
Dugan ordered a first status report by Feb. 1.