“Without notice or warning, the city razed the Jones’ trees and shrubs, turning the rearmost 15 feet of their property from a lush natural fence, thick with honeysuckle, saplings, and trees, into a barren moonscape,” the Jones’ lawyer asserts.
The couple requested judgment against the city amounting to $25,000 in damages.
City officials declined to comment in any detail about the case.
“The city’s attorneys are actively litigating our position within the appropriate legal process,” City Manager Jack Kuntz said this week.
The backyard of the Jones’ Hunters Run Drive home abuts the Brookville PeeWee Football Field to the east.
According to an affidavit in the court record, Brookville Public Works employee Jon Weist testified he and his crew performed routine maintenance on the football field in October 2023, which included the removal of “vegetation overgrowth consisting of honeysuckle bushes, weeds, and dead limbs from trees.”
New evergreen trees were then planted on the cleared city property, the affidavit claims.
In a filing requesting summary judgment in its favor, the city of Brookville cited the Ohio Revised Code and relevant case law to argue immunity from liability, as the alleged property damage was caused while city crews were performing the governmental function of grounds maintenance.
The Joneses pushed back in a memorandum filed by their attorney, arguing that the city failed to explain “how the maintenance of the football field required the city to lay waste the rearmost 15 feet of the Jones’ backyard.”
“(W)hen the city’s men left the football field and entered the Jones’ property to destroy the Jones’ trees and bushes, those men were not maintaining the football field,” the memorandum asserts.
The Joneses could not be reached for additional comment.
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