More homeowners sue Lenawee County Airport
“The Lenawee County Airport is facing a new challenge in a “phase two” group of lawsuits filed by four Lake Madison homeowners.
County commissioners voted in committee Tuesday to recommend allocating $50,000 toward a legal defense.
“We are going to have to set aside some funding for this lawsuit,” said county administrator Martin Marshall. He told the commission’s personnel/ways and means committee that the claims might not be covered by insurance, and money is needed for attorney fees and contractual services from the airport’s engineering consultants.
The property owners are claiming in the lawsuits that a 2005 runway extention project harmed their property by altering air traffic at the airport, said Marshall.
The new legal challenge is different from lawsuits over eminent domain acquisition of easements over five other homes at Lake Madison. After the county acquired the easements in court, homeowners argued the county should purchase their entire property rather than just pay for the airspace above them. The easements were to maintain an object-free safety zone.
Two of those lawsuits went to trials. Both juries ruled in the homeowners’ favor.”
Pelham, Dennis. Lenconnect.com 11 June 2014.