The insurance company for the church destroyed in the Yeager Airport landslide has given formal notice that it will sue the airport and others over the damage.
Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company filed the notice last week that it intends to sue the Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority, on behalf of Keystone Apostolic Church. The church, which was located on Keystone Drive, was destroyed when the airport's safety-overrun slope fell last year.
The lawsuit will seek damages for the failure of the structure the airport maintained and for failing to provide the church with adequate warning of the failure, wrote Clarksburg attorney Jeffrey D. Van Volkenburg.
"Brotherhood made payment for the damages to the property of its insured and now seeks to recover the payments made on behalf and to its insured,' the notice states.
The airport was to hold mediation sessions with the church's insurance company last October. A letter received by the airport in September stated that the church was seeking $8 million in compensation.
Yeager has bought more than a dozen houses and land parcels in the Keystone Drive vicinity after its insurance carrier, AIG, balked at buying any property in the slope failure area pending the settlement of slide-related lawsuits involving the airport. Those lawsuits still are pending.
The church's insurer also will sue the engineering firm and other companies that were associated with the safety overrun's construction and maintenance.
State law requires notice be given to state agencies before a lawsuit is filed. Brotherhood sent the notice to state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.