Jury Awards $1M to South Dakota Families for Flood Damage

A jury has awarded five families a combined $1 million in a lawsuit against the state of South Dakota over flood damage caused by inadequate drainage.

KELO-TV reports the jury delivered the verdict Wednesday after a three-day trial and more than three hours of deliberations. A judge in June ruled that the 2010 flood occurred because the state didn’t have adequate drainage underneath Highway 11 in Shindler.

The jury awarded the five homeowners the full difference between the value of the properties before and after the flood, which totaled nearly $750,000. It also allotted roughly $330,000 for personal possessions the families lost.

An attorney for the state says there was no dispute over the property values. He says the jury compromised between the $500,000 the plaintiffs sought for their possessions and their actual value.