Majestic Hills lawsuits consolidated for mediation purposes

A Washington County judge agreed to allow a raft of lawsuits filed in state court stemming from a series of landslides in the Majestic Hills neighborhood of North Strabane Township that resulted in the condemnation of several houses last year to be consolidated during attempts to reach a settlement in a related case in federal court.
Common Pleas Judge Michael Lucas Monday granted a motion by house builder NVR – commonly known as Ryan Homes – to consolidate cases brought against developer Joseph DeNardo and his company Majestic Hills LLC for purposes of discovery, and for a session with a mediator set for May 16.
NVR brought its federal lawsuit in October against DeNardo and his company – along with his wife, Shari DeNardo, the Majestic Hills company and another company of his, JND Properties – contractor Alton Industries Inc., engineering firm Pennsylvania Soil & Rock Inc. and its engineer Mark Brashear. The slides forced township officials to order three houses demolished that month, and to hire contractors to stabilize a hillside and make extensive road repairs in the neighborhood.
The slides resulted in a total of nine other lawsuits in Washington County.
Plaintiffs in those cases – including the owners of the condemned houses that had to be vacated, others who live in the Majestic Hills neighborhood and the township government and municipal authority – joined NVR’s request for the consolidation. Lucas granted the order, but left room for some or all of the cases to be tried separately if they get to that stage.
NVR’s attorneys argued in the motion that the cases all arise from the same problems and said case law supported allowing the consolidation, and said trying them together would allow for “the efficient efficient use of judicial resources” and cut down on the costs of the litigation for the various parties involved.
“For example, key issues in each of the state court actions will include what caused the slope movement and landslide, and, in particular, whether (DeNardo and other defendants in the federal case) or NVR’s acts or omissions caused same.”
The attorneys also reasoned that avoiding “unnecessary delay is critical here, where the homes of three of the state court plaintiffs were condemned and demolished.”
The mediator in the case is D. Matthew Jameson III, an attorney with the Pittsburgh firm Babst Calland who specializes in construction law.