Opinion ID: 1444406
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Drainage System Constructed on Public Land

Text: It is undisputed that King County provided the land on which the spreaders were placed. Whether the County owned the property in fee or whether it allowed Lozier to build the drainage system in the county's right-of-way is irrelevant. The record shows that the County allowed Lozier to build drain pipes across its 236th Avenue N.E. right-of-way and to install the spreader system on the far east side of the right-of-way, within several feet of the Phillips' property. The County acted as a direct participant in allowing its land, or land over which it had control, to be used by the developer. Rather than acting only to approve plans, the County here used its own property for the specific placement of drainage devices allegedly intended to drain water onto the Phillips' property. It is alleged that the County voluntarily allowed its property to be used as a conduit for storm water from private development. The record indicates that the water was collected from the development into the retention pond and was piped by culvert under or across the county right-of-way so that instead of flooding county property, it poured out of the spreaders onto the Phillips' property. This alleged conduct, of allowing the use of public land to convey the subdivision's storm water to the edge of, and then upon, the Phillips' property, satisfies the public use element of an inverse condemnation cause of action. King County's decision that the 236th Avenue N.E. right-of-way should be used for the construction of drainage fixtures was a proprietary action respecting a government's management of its public land. By channeling the water to the edge of its right-of-way, the County acted to protect its interest in public land. As in the Wilber case, the County's action here was not simply approval and permittingit was actual involvement in the drainage project. If it is proven at trial that the County participated in creation of the problem, it may participate in the solution. If the only action by the County had been to approve the drainage system under the regulations to which the developer was vested and to take over control and maintenance of the storm drainage system, as it apparently usually does, then there would be no cause of action against the County. However, the use of county controlled property for the building of part of the drainage system for the conduit of the water may give rise to liability on the part of the County. As discussed above, a long line of Washington cases holds that a municipality may not collect surface water by an artificial channel, or in large quantities, and pour it, in a body, on the land of a private person, to his or her injury. See, e.g., DiBlasi, 136 Wash.2d 865, 969 P.2d 10; 18A McQUILLIN, supra, § 53.144, at 321-23. The County's argument that the record is devoid of facts sufficient to support a finding of a causal connection between the alleged damage and the location of the spreaders in the right-of-way is inaccurate. The expert hydrologist testified that the spreaders, while ineffective to allow the water to infiltrate into the ground, did act to channel water from the detention pond to the Phillips' property. On summary judgment, any doubt as to the issue of a material fact is resolved against the moving party; we consider all facts submitted and the reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Atherton Condominium Apartment-Owners Ass'n v. Blume Dev. Co., 115 Wash.2d 506, 516, 799 P.2d 250 (1990). Under the vested rights doctrine, the County properly considered the developer's application under the 1979 Surface Water Design Manual. However, the vested rights doctrine did not force the County to provide public land to further the private development. This is not a case where the County simply acted to approve a developer's plans or to allow runoff water to pour into the public drainage system, but rather one in which the County used its own property for the specific placement of drainage devices which allegedly drained onto the Phillips' property. By making public property available for the building of the drainage facilities, the County may share in any potential liability, along with the developer, for damage to the Phillips' property caused by the dispersal of water from the spreaders.