The state asked a Carroll Circuit Court judge to dismiss a $2 million lawsuit filed by a Finksburg man who said his contaminated water decreased his property value and gave him cancer.
“The Maryland Tort Claims Act may seem rough [but Jeffrey Dix?s] knowledge of the problem arose in 2003, [when he noticed his well water?s petroleum odor], and he needed to file within one year,” State Highway Administration attorney Kristin Lawrence said Monday.
Now in remission for non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma, Dix filed two years after he first noticed the smell because the Maryland Department of the Environment removed the underground fuel-storage tanks from the State Highway Administration?s property and told Dix the contamination had ceased, Dix?s lawyer Robert Taylor said.
“[Dix] was given a letter from the state in 2004 saying that he no longer had a problem,” he said. “It wasn?t until 2005 that the Carroll County Health Department told him that he still had a problem.”
Dix, who lives on Sandra Lane, testified that the administration?s property was once the site of Gamber Fire Hall, where tanks had fueled fire engines.
Dix?s lawyers requested that should Judge Michael Galloway decide to continue with the case, he postpone the next court date until November to allow enough time to install monitoring wells to determine the exact sources of the gas chemicals.
Dix?s lawsuit alleges that the State Highway Administration, Later LLC, Wantz Construction Co., Greenprop Inc. and Stephen and Eva Timchula polluted his well with methyl tertiary butyl ether, benzene and xylene when they neglected to properly remove the tanks.
Galloway expects to rule on the state?s motion within a week, but said he would allow the expanded timeline.
