Opinion ID: 1740168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: What the Defendants knew

Text: Jordan Cooper, a profit-sharing employee of Cooper & Company, testified that, when he drove by the Sunchase subdivision, he noticed that the developer had put up a sign advertising lots for sale. After several conversations with the developer, Cooper obtained a listing of the subdivision for Cooper & Company. Cooper recommended to the developer that the developer and Cooper & Company obtain four or five good builders to work in the subdivision. Each builder started with three lots on which to build houses. Cooper visited the Sunchase subdivision on a regular basis. On several occasions, he noticed water running across the backyards of the properties along the easement. Cooper testified: The way this subdivision was set up and the runoff of water and so forth, the backyard was going to be where the watershed was. I mean, the lay of the land. It's just the house is up high, then it goes down and it [just] flattens out. With a berm in the back, if it rains it's got no place to go but the backyard.... Cooper admitted that, when he was marketing the lots to the builders and to the plaintiffs, he knew: The drainage easement would not handle [the rain] because the drainage easement is only fifteen feet and the lay of that land, anytime you have a light rain, its going to extend beyond that. It was designed that way. He acknowledged that the flooding of the plaintiffs' properties could affect their health and safety. Cooper admitted that, when the plaintiffs purchased their houses and lots, the plaintiffs would not have been able to see any problems with water in the easement overflowing into the backyards. He admitted further that neither he nor Botsford told any of the agents of Cooper & Company about the potential water problems or water problems at Sunchase [subdivision]. Cooper stated also that Botsford never told him about any water problems at the Sunchase subdivision. Botsford testified that Jordan Cooper had a listing agreement with defendant Turberville, one of the builders in the Sunchase subdivision. Botsford stated that he had the listing agreement with defendant Brewer, another of the builders in the Sunchase subdivision. Botsford admitted that, in September 1993, during a final walk-through of the house on lot 18, he and the prospective purchaser Chris Clements noticed the ponding of water in the backyard. Botsford denied that the easement had flooded the backyard of lot 18. Clements testified that, at the time of the final walk-through of the house on lot 18, there was, in the backyard, rapidly flowing water extending to a tree by the driveway, well beyond the confines of the easement. When Clements asked Botsford about the flooding, Botsford told him that the flooding would subside as more houses were built and the land was more developed, and that the flooding would subside as soon as the rest of the subdivision was landscaped. Lot 18 adjoins lot 17 on the south side of the Lesters' house and lot. In December 1993, Botsford tried to sell the house on lot 17 to Keith Bryant. Botsford admitted that Keith Bryant refused to purchase lot 17, but denied that Bryant refused to purchase the lot because the easement flooded the backyard during Bryant's inspection of the house and lot. Bryant testified that, while visiting the house on lot 17, he noticed dampness in the backyard and told Botsford he wanted to return to the property after it rained. Bryant revisited the property in December 1993 after a rain. He stated that he observed in the backyard a pond of water extending approximately 40 feet toward the house. Bryant then asked Botsford for a written assurance from the developer that the berm at the back of lot 17 worked. He testified that he did not receive a written assurance from the developer or Botsford, so he bought a house on the high side of the subdivision across from lot 17 and the plaintiffs' other properties. In the fall of 1994, after the plaintiffs-Sergeants complained to Brewer about a flooding defect, Brewer discussed the flooding problems with Botsford, Cooper, the developer, and the engineer for the subdivision. Botsford admitted that, even after witnessing the flooding or the ponding on lot 18 during the preclosing walk-through with Clements, Cooper & Company did not disclose on the multi-listing information any flooding or water problems in the Sunchase subdivision. He stated that the multi-listing information is for the use of real estate agents so that all the agents have the information about the property. The foregoing facts establish that the defendants knew that the 15-foot easement contained a dry creek bed intended by the developer to drain rainwater from the subdivision and that the easement could not handle the rainwater draining from the subdivision. Further, it is undisputed that the defendants did not disclose the drainage problem to the individual builders or the plaintiffs.