Retained by the City of Binghamton, NY, the Village of Johnson City, NY, and the parties’ Joint Sewage Treatment Board, Hinckley Allen settled a complex lawsuit stemming from the dramatic collapse of part of the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant in 2011. The collapse of the then-newly constructed Plant led to millions of dollars of damage and community-wide distress. The resulting lawsuit, which involved ten-plus parties, alleged that the collapse was a result of breach of contract, professional malpractice, and negligence.

Over the course of a decade, the Hinckley Allen team served as a constant legal advisor and consultant, leading a massive discovery effort to determine the root cause of the Plant’s process failures and ultimate collapse, and the parties responsible for the numerous failures. More importantly, the Hinckley Allen team guided the rotating group of municipal leaders through the litigation and settlement process.

Due to the complex and ever changing scope of the matter, the firm’s extensive in-house eDiscovery process made possible the discovery of critical evidence among millions of pages of documents. The settlement secured for their clients will be instrumental in helping the affected municipalities offset the cost of constructing a new sewage treatment plant.