Years after people lost their homes in a landslide, settlement money may be in jeopardy

WASHINGTON COUNTY — Three and a half years after families lost their homes in a landslide, the homeowners fear they won’t get a financial settlement.

“It was surreal, it’s nothing you could ever imagine happening,” Doug Grimes, a local police chief, said after losing his home in the slide. He said it all started when a small crack appeared in his backyard.

“Within a week that crack went from a two-inch gap in the soil to a 30-foot drop. In Pennsylvania, landslides are not covered by homeowners, so none of this was covered ... we had to continue to pay that mortgage on a house that didn’t exist, on property that can never be built on again.”

The complicated case is now in bankruptcy court, where multiple lawsuits were consolidated, after Majestic Hills, LLC filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A judge has created a plan that needs to agree upon by next week, but multiple parties oppose it.

The plan would reimburse homeowners the cost of their homes, and provide more than a million dollars in funding to continue stabilizing the hillside. All of the homeowners have signed off on it.

“We think the settlement is a great result for everyone. It pays $1.7 million to innocent homeowners who lost their homes in a landslide, they’ve been waiting years,” said Kirk Burkley, lawyer for J&D Properties, owner of Majestic Hills.

Burkley says Ryan Homes, North Strabane Township and the DEP are holding up the settlement.

“They are objecting to this plan. Ryan Homes and North Strabane have objected to nearly everything in this case -- including the settlements, the remediation work we are trying to do and getting these homeowners some money. It’s really unfortunate.”

A spokesperson for NVR Inc, owners of Ryan Homes told Channel 11, “No comment.”

North Strabane’s township manager and the DEP did not return our calls.

Cara Sapida asked Burkley what happens if the parties don’t sign off on the agreement in court next week. “There’s a real possibility the court will convert the case to a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, which means all of these settlements will go away.”

Grimes says the homeowners have already spent several hundred thousand dollars on lawyer fees, and he fears if this drags on, they won’t even break even.

“We can only get the value of our home, we can’t even collect attorney’s fees. Even if we settle on Tuesday we still lose, but at least it’s over and we can get on with our lives, and that’s what we want,” Grimes said.

2 landslides on same hill in the last week have people living in Pittsburgh neighborhood worried

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