West Covina : City Appeals Sewer Awards

West Covina city officials have filed an appeal in Pomona Superior Court seeking to overturn more than $9,000 in small claims awards to two homeowners for damage caused by a sewage backup.

A hearing has not been scheduled on the appeal contesting awards of $4,801 to Maynard and Beulah Giddings and $4,534 to their next-door neighbors, Henry and Marion Noel.

In small claims cases filed in August with the Citrus Municipal Court in West Covina, the two families alleged that the city’s failure to maintain its main line caused their homes to be flooded with sewage.

In June and October, three other people filed claims against the city after sewer backups caused minor damage to their properties. They claimed that the city’s failure to clean out the main sewer lines caused the blockages.

All the claims were denied in December.

Robert J. Gokoo, the city’s attorney, refused to comment on the cases because of the litigation.

City employees, however, have argued that the property owners are at fault because they do not have back-flow devices installed on their drains as required by city ordinance in any case in which a house has plumbing fixtures below the upstream manhole.

But Beulah Giddings said she has lived in the home on South Glenview Road for 24 years and the city never informed her that she needed a back-flow device.