Claim by Linda Schoenberger THE CITY OF
UUBUQUE MEMORANDUM
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TRACEY STECKLEIN
PARALEGAL
To: Mayor Roy D. Buol and
Members of the City Council
DATE: July 13, 2015
RE: Claim Against the City of Dubuque by Linda Schoenberger
Claimant Date of Claim Date of Loss Nature of Claim
Linda Schoenberger 07/10/15 07/02/15 Property Damage
This is a claim in which claimant alleges that she sustained water damage at her home
at 2718 Washington Street as a result of a Public Works crew cleaning a nearby sewer
line.
This claim has been referred to Public Entity Risk Services of Iowa, the agent for the Iowa
Communities Assurance Pool.
cc: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
John Klostermann, Street&Sewer Maintenance Supervisor
Linda Schoenberger
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY DUBUQUE, IOWA
SUITE 330, HARBOR VIEW PLACE,300 MAIN STREET DUBUQUE, IA 52001-6944
TELEPHONE (563)583-4113/FAx (563)583-1040/EMAIL tsteckle@cityofdubuque.org
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LAIM AGAINST THE CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA �rl�
�is written report constitutes your claim against the City of Dubuque, Iowa. You
ailould complete this form in full and attach any additional information that
supports your claim.
The claim must be filed with the City Clerk at City Hall, 50 West 13th St.,
Dubuque, IA 52001. It will then be referred to the appropriate department for
investigation and to the City Attorney's Office. Once that investigation is
completed, a report and recommendation will be submitted to the City Council.
You will be provided with a copy of that report and recommendation.
The final decision on all claims is made by the City Council. No employee of the
City of Dubuque has the authority to make any representation to you as to
whether your claim will or will not be paid.
1. Name of Claimant: I 5c
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2. Address: 71 K U)
3. Telephone Number
4. Date of Incident: Ju I
5. Time of Incident: Ana .
6. Location of Inci ent ( ex specific):
7. Describe the accident or occurrence that caused injury or damage. (Give full
details upon which you base your claim. If a City employee was involved, give
the employee's name.) R
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8. What were weather conditions like?
9. Gve-nar` rend d ess r y ne,, : a
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10. Di police investigate? (If so, give nam s of o icers.
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11. Was anyone injured? (If so, give names, addresses, and ex nt of inj ries).
12. Was any damage Fone property? (If so, describe property and the extent
of damages. Attach estimates of damages or describe basis for ascertaining
extent of da age.)
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13 What of//her damages do you claim, if any?
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14. Have you been compensated for any part or all of your claim by any
insurance company? (If so, give name and address of insurance company and
amount paid.)
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15. What amount do you claim from the City of Dubuque?
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16. Why do you claim he City of D .buque is respo ible?
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17. Have you made any claim against anyone else for damages as a result of
this in int? (If yes, give name and address.) j
18. If the answer to Question 17 is yes, have you received any payment from that
source, and if so, in what amount?
Dated this day of ,t , 20__/
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Confidential
This communication and any attachments may contain information which is confidential
and privileged by law and is for the use of the designated recipient. If you are not the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in
error, and that any review, disclosure, dissemination, distribution or copying of its contents
is prohibited. Please notify City of Dubuque immediately by telephone at (563)-589-4120 of
your receipt of these items and destroy the communication and any attachments
immediately. Further disclosure of this information may violate state and federal
restrictions.
Confidential information may include the following:
1) Social Security Number(s)
2) Medical/Health Information
3) Personnel/Disciplinary Information
4) Bank Account Information
5) Financial Information
6) Credit Card Numbers
If any documentation you desire to submit to the City of Dubuque contains any of the items above
this cover sheet must be attached directly to the confidential information and indicate the type of
information that is included.
hereby certify that the attached documents
include the following protected information:
Social Security Number(s) Bank Account Information
Medical/Health Information Financial Information
Personnel/Disci line Information Credit Card Number(s)
Personnel/Disciplinary ry ( )
I understand that this information may be distributed within the City organization or to agents of the
City for processing and I hereby authorize the City to act accordingly taking all precautions to
protect my information from unnecessary distribution.
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have read the information above and do not have any confidential documentation to submit to the it
City of Dubuque as part of this Claim Against the City
L
ig ature Date
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July 9, 2015
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Regarding: Linda Schoenberger, 2718 Washington Street,Dubuque, IA 52001
Statement from: Carolyn Kirkpatrick, 2722 Washington Street, Dubuque, IA 52001
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Dear Concerned: !j
On Thursday July 2, 2015 around 1:45 P.M. my neighbor two doors away, Chris Farber,
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came knocking on my door and asked if I had Linda Schoenberger's phone number
because he knocked on her door and no one answered. Chris said Linda's sump pump a
had been running for over an hour and was concerned because it hadn't rained so he j
thought something must be wrong. I was on an important phone call and told him I
would call her as soon as I could. I called Linda at 1:46 P.M. Linda didn't answer her
phone so I sent her a text. She called me back at 1:53 P.M. and I told her she needed to
get home right away and told her what Chris told me.
Josie Schoenberger(Linda's daughter) called me at 1:56 P.M. and told me she didn't
know what to do because there was water all over the bathroom and dining room floor
that came from the toilet. I told her that her mom was on her way home. My brother,
Joe, was at my house and I asked him if he could go over with me and shut off the
bathroom water and make sure a pipe didn't break somewhere. We went over and once
we hit the dining room floor our feet got soaked. We went to the bathroom and Josie had
already shut the water off. Josie and her friends had been upstairs so they never noticed
the water. I decided to go to the basement and try and see if any pipes broke. Only the
front two lights came on so I couldn't see all the way in the back. I grabbed a flashlight
and tried to look(also Joe was looking around with me). Water was pouring through the
floor like pouring rain. We got out of there because we didn't think it was safe with the h
water and electrical. Linda's sister, Robin, came and got Linda's car to go pick up Linda
from a friends house. I grabbed by shop vac and took it over and left because I had an
appointment.
When I came back I noticed a friend, Ron, coming with his shop vac. A little while later
I went over and helped shop vac. There were of them being used. I did it for quite
awhile until my back was throbbing so bad and I was so hot I thought I was going to pass
out. Later that night my husband, Mike, and I went over to Linda's to look at the toilet to
see if that was what caused the problem thinking it was leaking out and to see why Linda
was getting zapped in the house. We discovered water kept running and the flap was
open so the water should have just been running to the sewer. Instead it started backing
up into the toilet, which we feel is the reason the toilet was gushing out water. Mike
turned the toilet water off and Linda went upstairs and flushed the toilet there and the
water in the downstairs toilet started bubbling and overflowed. The floors were still
drenched. Later Mike and I were talking and I said, "you know I saw the City here today
in the alley cleaning out the lines. I wonder if that had anything to do with this?"
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On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 2:00 P.M. Linda texted me and said her basement was flooding
again and the fire alarm was going off and it smelled like sewage. She had called Jeff
Hefel to come look at it but he was out of town and it would take him a little bit to get
there so I had my husband, Mike, go over to see if he could do anything or shut off the
water.
On Saturday, July 4, 2015 late afternoon, we noticed the City trucks in the alley again
flushing out the sewer. Linda was talking to them. My bathroom sink had been draining
slowly and later that night it started draining again on it's own. Maybe them flushing the
sewer again helped my sink.
I also talked to Linda's insurance company corporate office on Thursday, July 3rd
because the local office was closed when she called. After being transferred several
times a manager told me Linda would need to file a claim and no one could come until
Monday at the earliest. He also said it would be a $500 deductible and he couldn't say for
sure if it would be covered. I told him she didn't have $500 and we would have to try and r
suck up the water the best we could. He said Linda could call the local office on
Monday.
Guess I don't understand all this. It has been a week and no one from the City has come
up to fix the problem. If the sewer line drops by her house, then why haven't they come
up and dug it up and fixed it or hired a plumber to come do whatever needs to be done so
they can at least use water and the sewage doesn't back up into their house. Now Linda,
her daughter Josie, and her two animals are all displaced. Poor Casey Cat was very sick.
Someone needs to do something now. Start my getting the sewer fixed. It is the City
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sewer and isn't that what we pay taxes for? I don't understand why they were telling her
to hire a plumber. That's not her responsibility if it is on the City sewer. She isn't
working and doesn't have the money to pay for something that wasn't her fault. Then her
insurance company (I believe they are saying they are not liable because it was the City's
fault) or the City should be responsible for paying someone to come repair whatever
needs to be done like ripping up and replacing carpet, and any furniture that is ruined. I
believe the City needs to step up and take responsibility and work with their insurance a
company and hers and figure out next steps immediately.
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If you have any questions, please call me at 563-599-2866.
Thank you,
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Carolyn Kirkpatrick
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