The Utah Court of Appeals has ordered a new trial for a group of former Thistle residents who said the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad caused the 1983 mudslide that destroyed their homes.
The ruling released by the appellate court Tuesday reverses the decision of a 4th District Court jury, which sided with the defendant in rejecting the residents' claim for $1 million in damages.The slide struck on April 13, 1983, moving down a hillside and blocking the Spanish Fork River. A 100-foot-deep lake formed by the dam destroyed the tiny town, which was designated a flood plain and declared uninhabitable after the water receded.
Thirteen homeowners filed suit against the railroad in 1986, alleging the landslide was caused by its construction activities at the toe of the slide - the bottom-most point where it met the river.
Following a two-week trial in August 1989, the jury rendered its verdict and Judge Cullen Christensen entered a judgment dismissing all claims with prejudice, meaning the suit could not be refiled.
Attorneys for the residents appealed on grounds that the trial court improperly excluded the testimony of John Shroder, a geomorphologist who had published studies on the Thistle area in the 1960s warning of slide potential.
Christensen excluded the testimony of Shroder and several other witnesses, citing a failure of the plaintiffs to meet a court-imposed deadline for disclosing their names on a witness list.
But the appellate court found that no such order existed in the record and that the exclusion of Shroder's testimony was prejudicial.
"Inasmuch as the plaintiffs did not violate any court order compelling discovery of their expert witnesses, the trial court abused its discretion by excluding the testimony of Dr. Shroder," said the opinion written by Judge Russell Bench.
"We cannot with any degree of assurance conclude that the improper exclusion of Dr. Shroder's testimony did not affect the outcome of the case."
The case was remanded back to the trial court on a 2-1 vote, with Judge Norman Jackson dissenting.
According to court documents, construction in the area began in the late 1800s when a predecessor railroad made a cut near the toe. The D&RGW subsequently made a second cut in the early 1900s and a final cut in 1951.
The lawsuit contended that had it not been for the cuts, the slide would not have occurred, or at least would not have been as large and would not have destroyed area homes.
The railroad argued that the slide's movement down the hillside showed it would have occurred anyway, even if the soil had not been removed.
Springville attorney Allen Young, co-counsel for the residents, said Tuesday he did not know how long it would take to schedule a new trial, but he planned to confer with other attorneys and the court within the next two weeks.