This appeal marks the second time a Georgia appellate court has reviewed actions taken by the trial court in this nearly 20-year-old litigation between the City of Columbus and the owner of real property within its boundaries. In 1999, a jury awarded monetary damages and equitable relief, i.e., remediation of the property, to homeowner Kenneth Barngrover. The monetary damages were paid into the registry of the trial court shortly after entry of judgment on the jury’s verdict, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in favor of Barngrover in 2001. City of Columbus v. Barngrover, 250 Ga. App. 589 552 SE2d 536 2001. It is the 2011 judicial resolution of the equitable features of the jury’s verdict that is now at issue.
In February 1993, appellant, the owner of improved real property in the City of Columbus, filed suit seeking monetary and equitable relief for inverse condemnation and a continuing nuisance and trespass on his property resulting in sinkholes and the presence of fecal coliform bacteria allegedly caused by leakage from the City’s network of storm water and sewage pipes running under the Barngrover property. In August 1999, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Barngrover, awarding him $237,000 in damages and directing the City to “abate the drainage system away from the house . . . and repair the house to its 1991 condition.” In its judgment entered September 1, 1999, the trial court ordered the City to abate all nuisances created, maintained, and in existence on Barngrover’s property and directed the City to remove all nuisances, pipes, and damages to the Barngrover property caused by all nuisances, and to repair, renovate, and restore the houses and real estate to their 1991 undamaged condition. The trial court expressly retained jurisdiction of the case pursuant to its equitable power to ensure completion of the equitable remedy. A week later, the trial court issued an order clarifying that the nuisances to be abated were only those “identified by the jury in its verdict” and that “abatement of the drainage system away from the house of Barngrover involves stopping the flow of storm water in the pipes under said house or its carport or swimming pool area. . . .” Following the City’s submission in September 1999 of plans to implement the injunctive relief , the trial court issued an order in December 1999 rejecting the City’s plan and ordering the City to remove from Barngrover’s property all nuisances, pipes, and damages caused by the nuisances; to abate the drainage system away from Barngrover’s property by re-routing and removing the storm water sewers and sanitary sewers traversing Barngrover’s property, with the exception of one specified sewer line to which only a sanitary sewer line serving Barngrover’s structures could be connected, with necessary sewer-line connections for neighboring properties being made without crossing, abutting, or coming onto Barngrover’s property; and to repair, renovate, and restore the houses, premises, and real estate to their 1991 undamaged condition.
