A timber company that over the years clear-cut and thinned trees above the hill that unleashed the Oso mudslide has asked a King County judge to spare it from being forced into court next year to fight claims that it is partially responsible for the tragedy.
Grandy Lake Forest Associates contends that neither liability law nor emerging evidence about the hill’s geology support the case brought against it by lawyers representing people who lost families and homes in the mudslide.
Attorneys for the Skagit County-based company have filed a summary judgment motion, now scheduled to be heard Oct. 16. They contend that the facts are so clearly in Grandy Lake’s favor that a trial would be unnecessary.
“Grandy Lake can only imagine the impact of this tragedy on its victims and their families. But Grandy Lake is not responsible for their pain, and it should be dismissed from this lawsuit,” the timber company’s attorneys said in court papers.
Lawyers for those suing Grandy Lake say clear-cutting in 2004 plus thinning and other work on the property in 2010 allowed more rain to percolate into a hill that already had a long history of slides. The company should have known people living in the Steelhead Haven neighborhood below were placed at risk, the attorneys maintain.
From HeraldNet.com: https://www.heraldnet.com/article/20151002/NEWS01/151009810