HOUSTON – Attorneys Muhammad S. Aziz, Larry G. Dunbar, and James E. Bradley have filed a lawsuit on behalf of nearly 150 Chambers County residents who claim they were displaced from their homes by a hurricane last year, per recent Harris County District Court records.
The 18-page suit, which was filed on May 29 in the Harris County 333rd District Court, alleges Legends Bay I, Ltd.; Legends Bay LLC; GC Engineering, Inc.; and Frederick Donald Thompson “failed to prepare for, or consciously ignored, a foreseeable weather event, which resulted in the flooding of numerous homes” in the Legends Bay residential community, located on the western side of Chambers County, at the height of Hurricane Harvey.
The Legends Bay companies were developers of the decade-old community while GC and Thompson designed the storm drainage and flood control features, the suit says.
Court papers assert the defendants made errors when designing the storm water management system for Legends Bay, which is adjacent to Hackberry Gully.
“For example, they relied on an outdated and knowingly inaccurate FEMA floodplain map to design the Legends Bay subdivision,” the original petition says. “The storm water management system was not designed to handle floodwaters overflowing Hackberry Gully and passing through the Legends Bay subdivision.”
It additionally argues that “all or some” of the residences were built “at an elevation that was unreasonably low given the risks of flooding.
“The developer defendants knew or should have known to build the houses at an elevation adequate to handle a reasonably foreseeable event,” the complaint says.
Consequently, the plaintiffs seek unspecified monetary damages.
Harris County 333rd District Court Case No. 2018-35636