Congratulations to Attorneys Tara Taylor and Rima Kikani on their recent $1 Million D.C. Court of Appeals Win!

Representing B. Frank Joy, L.L.C. (“BF Joy”), Partner Tara Taylor and Associate Rima Kikani, recently won an appeal in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in B. Frank Joy, L.L.C. v. District of Columbia Water & Sewer Authority. Based on our attorneys’ arguments, the D.C. Court of Appeals effectively shifted the interpretation of a 47-year-old statutory law in a nearly $1 Million civil engineering defect-geotechnical hazard case. 

This case stemmed from the 2013 collapse of a roadway near the intersection of 14^th Street and F Street, NW, in Washington, D.C. Seventeen years earlier, in 1996, BF Joy had installed an access

chamber for AT&T beneath the intersection, allowing the telecommunications company to access underground cables. The 2013 collapse of the roadway caused extensive damage, including damage to a sewer main and other underground utilities. The District of Columbia Water & Sewer Authority (“WASA”) was responsible for repairing the underground water infrastructure, remediating the void, and repairing the intersection, incurring nearly one million dollars in damages.

In May 2016, WASA filed a Complaint against BF Joy, contending that BF Joy’s negligent construction of the chamber caused the collapse seventeen years later. Specifically, WASA argued that BF Joy’s installation of the access chamber bisected a storm water lateral, which blocked storm water from traveling into its sewer system, and instead, redirected the storm water back into the soil. According to WASA, years of water pressure from rainfall caused soil erosion, and the erosion, over time, caused the roadway above it to collapse.

In response, BF Joy denied any negligence, and among several affirmative defenses, argued that D.C.’s 10-year Statute of Repose barred WASA’s claim for the 1996 installation. BF Joy moved to dismiss WASA’s Complaint based on the 10-year limitation, but the Superior Court of the District of Columbia denied the request. After two years of discovery and litigation, the parties tried the matter in February 2018, and a jury found BF Joy liable for negligent installation of the access chamber.

BF Joy appealed the matter to the D.C. Court of Appeals, citing to the Statute of Repose as well as discretionary abuses by the trial court. WASA opposed the appeal, contending that the Statute of Repose did not apply to this case because: 1) the access chamber did not constitute an improvement to real property as required by the Statute given that it did not enhance the beauty or utility of the intersection; 2) the chamber did not constitute a defective condition under the meaning of the Statute; and 3) the Statute did not apply to the D.C. Government, of which WASA is a part.

Agreeing with BF Joy, the Court of Appeals reasoned that: 1) the underground access chamber does constitute an improvement to realty under the meaning of the Statute because it allows AT&T to access fiber optic cables that provide telecommunications services to surrounding buildings, including the U.S. Department of Treasury; 2) if an access chamber poses a geological hazard, then it is, by definition, a defective condition under the Statute; and 3) although the Statute exempts the D.C. Government from compliance, WASA, for purposes of this Statute, is a separate entity of the Government, but not the Government itself.

Thus, the Court held that the Statute of Repose does apply to this matter, and because WASA waited seventeen years to file suit instead of complying with the 10-year limitation, the trial court should have dismissed WASA’s Complaint. Accordingly, the Court vacated the trial judgment and reversed the denial of BF Joy’s motion to dismiss, barring WASA from any recovery.

Congratulations to Ms. Taylor and Ms. Kikani on this outstanding win.