Mediation yields no settlement in Majestic Hills litigation

Efforts to settle a raft of overlapping lawsuits over landslides in North Strabane Township are proceeding more slowly than the unstable ground that prompted the litigation.
Township solicitor Gary Sweat said Tuesday he attended the May 16 meeting with Babst Calland attorney D. Matthew Jameson III, the court-appointed mediator in a federal lawsuit stemming from the slippages, which prompted the evacuation of three houses and wrought other damage in the exurban Majestic Hills housing plan last year.
Sweat reported no real change in the status of the cases from this month’s session.
“No settlement was reached,” Sweat said. “No numbers were really discussed. I think the legal positions of the parties were the items that mainly concerned the mediator.”
The mediation was initially scheduled in a federal lawsuit filed by NVR Inc. – a northern Virginia builder commonly known as Ryan Homes – in October against Majestic Hills LLC and its parent company JND Properties, plus developer Joseph DeNardo and his wife, Shari DeNardo, who live in Peters Township.
The danger posed by the slides eventually prompted township officials to declare a state of emergency and condemn three dwellings in the neighborhood before having them demolished in October.
Under a 2004 agreement, Joseph DeNardo had promised to develop 179 lots and then sell them to NVR, which built houses on them. In its lawsuit, NVR accused Joseph DeNardo, his companies and other firms involved with the developer’s end of the work of causing the landslides and sought to hold them liable for ensuing damages. DeNardo and other defendants in the case deny responsibility.
Others affected by the slides – including owners of those houses, others from the neighborhood, the township and its municipal authority – filed their own lawsuits in state court.
Washington County Common Pleas Judge Michael Lucas ruled on May 6 that at least seven other cases stemming from the slides would be consolidated with the one in federal court “for purposes of discovery and conciliation.”
Sweat, township manager Andy Walz and engineer Joe Sites of Gateway Engineers attended the session with Jameson this month. Another one is tentatively set for June 13, Sweat added.
Walz said the township has spent about $3.1 million to date to make repairs to the hillside and complete other work stemming from the problems at the development.
Hillside stabilization work led by Stewart Contracting Inc. was finished about a month ago. Walz wasn’t sure of a timeline for planned repairs to Oakwood Drive, a section of which caved in late in October.