Brooks v. City of Huntington (Signed Opinion)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs sued the City of Huntington, arguing that the City was negligent in its maintenance of a “trash rack” within a stormwater management project in the City, which negligence proximately caused flooding in Petitioners’ Spring Valley neighborhood. A jury found the City negligent and awarded damages for both the cost to raise the foundations of Plaintiffs’ homes to prevent additional flooding as well as the diminished value of the homes. The circuit court granted the City’s motion for remittitur, concluding that West Virginia law permits only recovery for the lesser of the diminution of value of the homes or the cost of the foundation repair. Accordingly, the court remitted the verdict to provide recovery for only the lost value of the homes. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the circuit court erred in remitting the verdict because, where the owner of residential real property which is damaged can establish that the pre-damage fair market value of the real property cannot be fully restored by repairs, then the owner may recover both the cost of repair and for such remaining residual diminution in value.
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