RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a group of Black Hawk residents impacted by the Hideaway Hills mine sinkhole in 2020.
The lawsuit alleged that the state’s mining activities and the way the mine was ultimately closed created conditions ripe for sinkholes to develop.
The homeowners also fault the state for failing to disclose the problematic conditions.
The judge ruled that the state has sovereign immunity, a sort of legal protection against lawsuits, stating that the state was only doing what was best for the community.
“Safety yes, I understand that, but four years of fighting for any type of compensation for what obviously is in my opinion, the state’s fault for running a mining operation over there and not taking care of the ground properly,” Hideaway Hills Resident David Peck said.
“You know, the property was taken from us unduly by our neighbor, which is the mineral rights below us. And not being able to get any value back from that basically means we have to start over with whatever the debt of the house was,” Hideaway Hills Resident Brian Ireland said.
Those directly involved want the state to do the right thing.
“I think what needs to be done is the state needs to step up, settle the case, and quit fighting us. There’s a large trust fund from when the state sold the cement plant, set up just for this situation,” Peck said.
“From my standpoint obviously I can’t use the property, it was taken from me. I can’t do anything with it, I can’t resell it, I can’t do a foreclosure because the bank cannot take the property because of the state it’s in, so we’re stuck,” Ireland said.
Residents in the neighborhood are just wanting a fighting chance after they lost everything they had.
The residents and lawyers involved in the lawsuit have already started working on their appeal of this ruling.
