Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard

FLORENCE - An auto body shop owner is suing the city of Florence, blaming the city for a collapsed culvert that he said has caused parts of his building to collapse and split.

Rick Ruede, the owner of West Coast Autobody, said the culvert

City Manager Bob Willoughby countered that the culvert is not on city property and thus not the city's responsibility.

Ruede also named the property owners of a nearby Abby's Pizza and Rite-Aid store as co-defendants in the lawsuit. Ruede said he has suffered more than $300,000 in damages and up to $500,000 in lost property value.

Ruede asserts in the lawsuit that stormwater from a city-owned right of way plus drainage from the Abby's and Rite-Aid property all flows onto his property through a culvert located 17 feet below ground. The culvert empties into a city manhole and then into an area south of the city's bike path.

According to the lawsuit, none of the defendants applied for an easement or right of way across Ruede's property.

Last year, part of the culvert collapsed, according to Ruede, causing the sand that supported parts of the auto body shop to give way, which led to the foundation of the building sinking and tilting. Part of the floor collapsed and the north wall split from the rest of the building, Ruede said.

The lawsuit claims that the city promised to repair part of the culvert, but officials decided in late 2006 that the repair would be too expensive.

The suit seeks to stop Abby's and the Rite-Aid from allowing stormwater from their property to drain beneath the Ruede's building, causing further damage.

The lawsuit also seeks "contributions" from all three defendants for use of the culvert, claims the city was negligent in maintaining the culvert and is trespassing by using the property with no easement.

Willoughby said his research indicates that someone installed a storm drain on the private property on which Ruede's building now sits, but that someone wasn't the city.

"It doesn't involve a city storm drain," Willoughby said. "As far as I can tell, this was done without any permit and may have been (done by) the owner of the property."

With no permit, there's no record of who installed the culvert or who's responsible for fixing it, Willoughby said.

"We're being asked to fix problems with a storm pipe that we don't own and we didn't install," Willoughby said.

Mike Kalberer, the owner of the property on which the Rite-Aid sits, said he forwarded the lawsuit to his attorney, who hasn't reviewed it yet. Telephone calls to Abby's headquarters weren't returned.

Winston Ross can be reached at (541) 902-9030 or rgcoast@oregonfast.net.