Lawsuit against Reno over home flooding moving to US court

RENO — Dozens of residents who are suing the city of Reno after their homes flooded in 2017 are moving to federal court in a complex case that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

The move comes as the city recently appealed the case to the Nevada Supreme Court, the Reno Gazette Journal reported.

Lemmon Valley residents filed a class-action lawsuit and won a jury verdict in Washoe County District Court in 2019 that determined Reno was responsible for the dramatic flooding north of town that damaged more than 60 homes.

The city had pumped or diverted excess storm water into Swan Lake Basin. The verdict said Reno must pay damages plus attorney fees, which could cost it at least $1.5 million.

But Judge Barry Breslow later removed class-action status, meaning the 26 plaintiffs must argue individually for damages. Since then, their lawyer, Roger Doyle, has been refiling their cases in federal court in Reno, the newspaper reported last week.

In the meantime, the City Council voted 4-3 late last month to appeal the decision to the state's high court.

Mayor Hillary Schieve and council members Jenny Brekhus and Naomi Duerr argued that residents have suffered enough and that the city should settle the case and move on.

“To me this doesn’t sit right, and I think that a lot of those people out there suffered,” Schieve said. “I think we all (need to) move on and focus on other things to make the infrastructure better for our residents.”

Council members Devon Reese, Oscar Delgado, Bonnie Weber and Neoma Jardon said they should follow the city attorney’s advice and move forward with the appeal.

"We certainly don’t want those people to be out of their properties, but we also have to think about our entire city,” said Weber, who represents an area that includes Lemmon Valley and the Swan Lake flooding victims.

City Attorney Karl Hall said the district court didn't properly establish liability, incorrectly calculated damages and initially gave class-action status in error.

Doyle, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said going to U.S. court will bind the city to the 2019 verdict. His team is moving to get the trials to determine damages in federal court as soon as possible.

The newspaper reported in 2018 that the city knew Swan Lake would likely flood and ignored suggestions to build flood mitigation projects alongside new developments in Lemmon Valley.