Settlement in Medford Lakes flooding

A Burlington County Superior Court judge approved a $1 million settlement yesterday for residents whose property was flooded in 2004 after a dam owned by a Medford Lakes homeowners association failed.

The settlement with the Medford Lakes Colony Club, owner of the Lower Aetna Lake dam, is the second highest of two dozen settlements awarded over the last 14 months in an ongoing class-action lawsuit.

At issue is the responsibility owners bore for the failure of a string of dams that devastated hundreds of homes and businesses in the Rancocas Creek watershed during the July 2004 rainstorm. The Lower Aetna dam failure was a "significant contributor" in the flooding, unleashing 62 million gallons of water, said plaintiff attorney Carlo Scaramella.

Judge Harold Wells said he approved the settlement in part because a jury trial would have involved conflicting expert testimony on a difficult subject, including central aspects of the incident, such as how much rain actually fell in various areas.

More than $6 million so far has been awarded to the suit's 200 plantiffs. The largest amount - $2.5 million awarded last year - was to be paid by Medford Lakes Borough, owner of the Upper Aetna Lake dam. That dam's collapse helped lead to the failure of the Lower Aetna dam.

Water reached a depth of four feet on the first floor of Cheyenne DiEnno's Lumberton Township house on Church Street, destroying her two home businesses and causing thousands of dollars in damage, she said outside the courtroom.

"It's taken forever," DiEnno, a member of the suit, said of the legal proceedings. "We'd like to get our money."

The Colony Club has maintained that its dam broke because of failures in a chain of nearby dams, and that the flood was so unusually severe that the club could not be held accountable for the damage.

The association has also said that it had complied with state Department of Environmental Protection regulations and that the DEP was aware of the dam's condition.

Plaintiff attorneys have countered that the association, like the other dam owners, was obligated to maintain the dam properly and to follow DEP regulations with regard to regular inspections and engineering reports regardless of whether the agency enforced those rules.

"You stop at a red light," Scaramella said after the hearing. "Why? Because that's the reasonable, responsible thing to do."

"I think the judge made the right decision," said Christopher Leise, the Medford Lakes association's attorney. He declined to comment further.

The Colony Club's insurers originally refused to pay the claim but now have agreed to pay the cost of the settlement. Two weeks ago, the judge approved a settlement with the DEP for $45,000, along with settlements with owners of three other dams.

The plaintiffs are now seeking settlements with the YMCA Camp Ockanickon and Girl Scouts of Camden County, owners of some of the largest dams that broke and started the series of dam failures.