More than 150 people are involved in a lawsuit against the State of South Dakota over a series of sinkholes that began opening in 2020.
The lawsuit, filed by Hideaway Hills residents, alleges the state acted recklessly by failing to adequately stabilize land once used as a state-operated mine.
They blame the state for selling the land despite knowing it was located on the ancient site and knowing that the soil’s natural ability to support the surface was in question.
Today, more than a hundred homes are located near the depressions, which continue to appear day by day.
If successful, the suit will force officials to pay the value of each affected home — a total of about $44 million.
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More than 150 people are involved in a lawsuit against the state of South Dakota over a series of sinkholes the state accidentally opened in 2020
The lawsuit, filed by Hideaway Hills residents, accuses the state of acting recklessly by failing to properly stabilize land that had been used as a state-operated mine, as seen here.
“They’re concerned about the possibility of school buses falling into a hole,” attorney Kathy Barrow said Saturday, more than four years after several of her clients’ homes were evacuated after the first sinkhole collapsed and opened into the abandoned gypsum mine.
‘They worry that their houses will collapse on top of their children in their beds at night.
“I mean, you spend your whole life putting money and building equity in your home,” he continued, as the class-action lawsuit continues its way through state courts.
“It is their most valuable asset, and these people’s asset has become not only useless but almost negative because it is dangerous to live in them.”
Days earlier, a South Dakota judge granted class-action certification to the 158 homeowners Barrow represents whose homes were rendered unusable after the sinkhole in the Hideaway Hills section of Black Hawk opened in May 2020.
This means that any of the owners who do not opt out will be represented in court as a group by Fox Rothschild, the firm filing the application on behalf of the owners.
The mining history of the area dates back to the 1900s and the site has been abandoned since before 1930.
Beginning in 1986, a state-owned cement plant operated there for several years, and around 1994, a horse breeder bought the land and then sold the property to a developer who found a deep well, the state found in an investigation.
This photo taken on April 27, 2022 shows a sinkhole in the Hideaway Hills neighborhood near Rapid City.
Another photograph by Tonya Junker shows the same sinkhole, which opened in 2020 as a result of work near a former mining site.
The state has since claimed it was not responsible for the damage because the cement plant was not extracting underground material and the mine, in its eyes, would have collapsed anyway.
The state said it could not have known that developers, homebuilders and the county would eventually develop on the site, despite knowing about past mining and underground voids.
The ground broke open in May when a man was mowing his lawn in the affected neighborhood subdivision, leading residents like Carisa Gerving and Caitlin Samuel to connect with Barrow.
Testing continued and revealed a large, poorly sealed mine, previously known to the public, beneath the northeast portion of the subdivision.
A 40-foot-deep mine was also found in another corner of the neighborhood, Barrow said, citing state officials’ failure to flag such developments.
“To the extent there was improper or inadequate recovery — which is certainly one of the things we’re denouncing — that can only be attributed to the state,” he told the Fox affiliate in Black Hill in June.
Plaintiffs Tonya Junker and Stuart Junker also blame the state. Tonya told AP that her husband was set to retire this year but now has to keep working to save money in case they need to be evacuated.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” he said, citing the ever-present concern mentioned by several in the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs Stuart and Tonya Junker also blame the state, with Tonya telling the AP that her husband was set to retire this year but now has to keep working to save money in case they need to be evacuated.
Attorney Kathy Barrow
The ground broke open in May when a man was mowing his lawn in the affected neighborhood subdivision, leading residents like Carisa Gerving and Caitlin Samuel to connect with Barrow.
They have lived there for 15 years, in a house built in 1929, when housing began to be built in the subdivision the state now says should never have been settled.
They gutted and remodeled the structure and planned to make the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home their retirement base, but now they just want to so that they pay him what his house is worth.
“It’s a little disappointing that the state isn’t taking care of us,” Stuart said ahead of a damages trial scheduled for next spring.
“I mean, this is your problem.”
The state, however, maintains that it was not the fault of officials but of developers and vendors over the years, who it says improperly built the area at their own peril.
“The real liable parties in this case are the developer, the initial real estate agent and the numerous homebuilders who knowingly chose to build on an abandoned mine while deliberately concealing its existence from homebuyers purchasing in Hideaway Hills,” the state said in a statement.
But since that first giant collapse, holes and sinkholes continue to appear.
At the time of writing, there are still “too many to count,” Barrow said.
