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The family of Amari Harley — the 3-year-old boy who died after falling into an unsecured septic tank at a Jacksonville, Florida, park — has announced they are suing the city for negligence.
The family’s lawyers say in their complaint that “between January 2017 and October 2017, at least two of the septic tank lids at the subject premises were not secured on six separate occasions,” according to News 4 Jax.
The lawyers argue that the city had a duty to maintain the septic tanks, lids and risers on public property and to keep them safely secured, and that the city is now liable for Harley’s death.
Meanwhile, city parks are still a work in progress, as Jacksonville continues working to deliver on its promise to make the city’s parks safer. One of its first orders of business last year was spending $837,000 on up-to-date, secured septic tank lids.
An effort by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to allow more development and the addition of up to 1,145 more septic systems in the Highlands reservoir region of the state has been scrapped by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
Catherine McCabe, Department of Environmental Protection commissioner, recently released a notice of the change.
The plan had previously been under scrutiny for allegedly defying the intent of the 2004 Highlands Act, which seeks to protect the region’s drinking water supply.
In lighter news, a litter of puppies recently was rescued from a septic tank in rural Tennessee after being abandoned by their owner, according to a story by WPTV News.
Local animal rescue workers were called to the scene where they found seven puppies and their mother in an old septic tank.
Officials say it’s likely the mother dog hid her puppies in the tank in an effort to protect them.
In what was described as the breaking of a “mutually declared truce” in a “long-simmering feud” in Turtle Lake, Saskatchewan, a cabin owner sued his neighbor for defamation after she accused him of poling holes in her septic tank.
The feud apparently started back in 2007 during an argument about a tree removal.
Unsurprisingly, the judge threw out the defamation claim. The plaintiff hadn’t provided substantial evidence proving damages from the allegations.
In any case, this person should have her septic tank inspected by a professional if she thinks it’s Swiss-cheesed with holes.
