NORTH ATTLEBORO - Nearly five years after seeing their North Attleboro basement flood, leaving them without heat or hot water, a former Holbrook Avenue couple has reached a $1 million settlement with the owners of 21 East Apartments, according to court records and their attorney.
Our partners at The Sun Chronicle reported in Wednesday’s edition that Steven Banks and Katherine Doroty, formerly of 18 Holbrook Ave., sued the owners of the then recently apartments in July of 2022, also claiming the town and the builder’s contractor shared the blame for a rising water table that flooded their cellar and knocked out both their furnace and electrical system the previous winter.
Steven Clapp, the couple’s North Attleboro attorney, said that following an 11-day trial in September in New Bedford Superior Court, the jury had returned a verdict for his clients and awarded them damages of $975,000.
That award was reduced slightly because the jury had found the occupants of the home had failed to maintain their basement sump pumps properly.
But, Clapp said, with an interest of 12% on the award, the final judgement came to $1.2 million.
Last week, however, the parties agreed to a final settlement, Clapp said. “To avoid a prolonged two-year appeal process (by the defendents) my people agreed to accept the policty limit of $1 million, so the case was concluded.”
The town and the developer’s contractor, originally named as defendants, were eventually dropped from the suit.
