RM of Portage reps opened valve, flooded honey farm: suit

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This article was published 21/01/2025 (286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A RURAL Municipality of Portage la Prairie farmer is suing the local government, claiming its representatives mistakenly turned on a water valve while trespassing in a building under construction on her property, flooding and destroying it.

Lawyer Jeffrey King filed the lawsuit in the Court of King’s Bench on behalf of Arlene Harris last week. The lawsuit is seeking damages to be determined at trial, with no dollar figure cited in the court filings, as well as costs and interest.

The RM has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court. Deputy Reeve Garth Asham said in an email that officials will “reserve comment on this until all facts are known.”

Harris and her family extract and sell honey on the farm, court filings say.

The court papers say the RM installed a main water line in 2011 to service Harris’s property and for the future construction of a farm building. The line was not connected to any other lines or a meter and its valve was left off.

The valve was meant to be turned on to provide water once the building was completed and ready for service, the filings say.

Construction on the farm building, which was intended to be used to extract and store honey for sale, as well as beehives and equipment, began in the summer of 2018. Construction continued each year through 2022, pausing over the winters.

The main water line remained disconnected throughout construction, the filings say.

The court filings allege the RM’s director of public works and utilities went to Harris’s residential property and advised her of flooding inside the building on Jan. 20, 2023.

The court papers claim Harris discovered an employee or employees, or representatives, of the RM went to the property without her knowledge and turned the water valve on despite the main line not being connected to any other infrastructure, causing water to flood the building for “four days straight.”

The flooding was discovered when the RM noticed “unusually high water usage” from the line and went to the property to turn the valve off, the lawsuit claims.

The suit claims Harris learned “someone unknown” had requested the RM to check the valve and ensure it was off on Jan. 17, 2023 without her knowledge, but instead turned it on, causing four days of flooding in the middle of winter. The property had a locked gate on its drive, the papers say.

Harris’s husband, Lloyd Harris, went to the property Jan. 20 and confirmed the building had been flooded to a depth between four inches and a foot.

The building’s foundation heaved and its contents “ruined,” the lawsuit says. Pipes were also damaged and the suit claims water remains trapped inside the foundation and subsurface.

“The farm building is unusable as designed and for its intended purpose after the flooding,” reads the lawsuit. “Currently, the farm building is ineligible for inspection, approval and licensing for food processing.”

The court papers say the building likely can’t be repaired and will probably need to be demolished.

The RM used pumps, vacuumed water out of drains, poured in anti-freeze and used a heater to run a fan and dehumidifier for about three days after the flood, say the court papers.

The suit says no one has provided an explanation of why someone from the RM attended the property and turned the valve on in the first place and the RM has refused to disclose any information as requested by the couple.

“Arlene has requested that the RM compensate her for the full loss, harm and damage she has suffered as a result of the flooding, however the RM has refused and continues to refuse to compensate her,” the lawsuit claims.

The lawsuit says the RM was negligent, misrepresented itself, committed nuisance, trespass and misfeasance in public office and interfered with the farm’s operations, causing economic damage to Harris.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca