August 4, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 30
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del.icio.usA Kentucky-fried flood destroyed our house, a pair of homeowners charged in a lawsuit against the KFC fast-food chain filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The $8-million, finger-lickin’ suit accuses the fried chicken giant of “fail[ing] to maintain” the underground sewage tanks that collect wastewater at the KFC at 94 Fourth Ave., allowing greasy wastewater to flood Tyler Nelson and Kimberly Howland’s 587 Warren St. home, which is adjacent to the KFC.
“The defendants have failed to maintain the detainment tanks and … permitted water to run off its property from the tanks which have caused damages to [Nelson and Howland’s] house,” court papers state.
The suit alleges that KFC and its landlord “refused to take the necessary remedial steps to correct and cure these conditions,” even after the Warren Street couple informed them of the problem.
The couple bought the new three-story, brick house for $865,000 in 2004. They were the first inhabitants of the home, one of many brick, Federal-style houses built in the fast-gentrifying neighborhood. The house is KFC’s closest neighbor, just a Styrofoam clamshell toss from fast-food restaurant’s drive-through lane.
Three years later, the couple says the bottom floor of the house has been rendered unsafe by a tide of sewer-bound water. Last spring, the couple moved temporarily to California, intending to stay until the lawsuit is resolved and the house is repaired. A renter is currently living there at a discounted rate.
One day after Monday’s rainstorm, a drain in the KFC driveway that runs next to Nelson and Howland’s home was clogged by two crushed Budweiser cans.
Michael Colon, the lawyer representing KFC’s landlord, said daily maintenance was the responsibility of the tenant, KFC.
A manager of the Fourth Avenue KFC declined to comment, as did a corporate spokesperson for KFC.
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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