Land Developers (Zokaites Contracting) Hit With $5M in Punitives in $6.25M Property Damage Case

The following article is from https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/2023/12/05/land-developers-hit-with-5m-in-punitives-in-6-25m-property-damage-case/ ALM Law.com “The Legal Intelligencer” from December 5, 2023

“When your instinct is that this conduct is egregious or outrageous, you’re probably right and you should run with that,” Rosen & Perry’s Michael Calder said.

December 05, 2023 at 12:02 PM

Aleeza Furman, Litigation Reporter

What You Need to Know

• A jury awarded $6.25 million to a couple whose property was damaged in flooding.

• The plaintiffs alleged that a nearby land development project was to blame for the flooding.

• The verdict included $5 million in punitive damages against the project's owners.

A couple who claimed a nearby land development project caused a flood that destroyed their property secured a $6.25 million verdict in Pittsburgh.

The verdict included $5 million in punitive damages, with the Allegheny County jury determining the project’s owners were not only negligent, but outrageously so.

“Punitive damages are an exceptional remedy. They don’t happen very often,” said Rosen & Perry’s Michael Calder, who represented plaintiffs Richard and Francis Hill. Punitive damages are, “to the outside eye, especially surprising in a property damages case,” he added.

Calder, who tried the case alongside co-counsel Jennifer Webster, said the verdict marks his first time obtaining punitive damages in a case of any kind.

“When your instinct is that this conduct is egregious or outrageous, you’re probably right and you should run with that,” he said.

Calder said he and Webster were able to demonstrate the extent of the defendants’ negligence when the owner of two defendant companies, Leslie Road Associates LLC and Cloverdale Woods LP, took the stand.

The Hills alleged that Leslie Road Associates and Cloverdale Woods failed to follow an erosion control plan to which the defendants had agreed when they received a permit for an excavation project next to the plaintiffs’ property.

As a result, the plaintiffs claimed, floodwater ran unimpeded onto the Hills’ property, damaging a retention pond and stream, patio and structural wall, and requiring extensive repairs.

The Leslie Road defendants contended in their pretrial statement that they “strictly complied with all permit requirements, best practices, the requisite construction sequence, and requirements for erosion and sediment controls” and that a contractor, Industrial Timber and Pulp LLC, controlled the site at the time of the flood.

They also lodged a counterclaim against the plaintiffs, alleging that dams constructed by the Hills caused damage to the defendants’ property.

Industrial Timber denied liability in its pretrial memo, arguing that the plaintiffs could not show the flooding came from the Cloverdale Woods property or that the damage was a result of either defendants’ conduct.

But Calder said he and Webster demonstrated otherwise with the use of videos the plaintiffs had taken when the flooding occurred.

And Calder said they established liability when they examined Frank Zokaites, the owner of Leslie Road and Cloverdale Woods. Calder said he confronted Zokaites with transcripts from his deposition testimony and documents showing that he had violated regulations for controlling erosion.

“He admitted all that. Reluctantly. He tried to explain it away,” Calder said. “That had to have been powerful stuff,” he said.

The jurors awarded $1.25 million in compensatory damages in the Nov. 27 verdict. They found the Leslie Road defendants 85% negligent and Industrial Timber 15% negligent, and determined the Leslie Road defendants’ conduct was outrageous.

 According to Calder, the jury did not take long to deliberate. He said the jury spent about an hour and a half weighing the compensatory portion of the verdict sheet.

After that, Calder said, counsel presented arguments on punitive damages and the jury determined that the Leslie Hill defendants’ conduct warranted an additional $5 million—all within about half an hour.

"They were gone for literally eight minutes,” Calder said.

The plaintiffs filed a motion for delay damages Monday, asking that about $177,000 be added to the compensatory verdict.

 The Leslie Road defendants were represented by Dina Bastianini of Zokaites Contracting, and Industrial Timber was represented by Hardin Thompson partner Kara Lattanzio. Bastianini declined to comment, and Lattanzio did not respond to calls seeking comment.