In a case first filed in 2010 that had been to the Maryland Court of Appeals twice on preliminary matters, the Plaintiff, Gail Litz, alleged that the Town of Goldsboro and agencies of the State of Maryland had failed to address issues with septic systems in the Town in breach of a 1996 Consent Order resulting in contamination of Lake Bonnie, which was located on her Caroline County property. Plaintiff claimed that the devaluation of the property, and ultimately her loss of the property to foreclosure, constituted inverse condemnation and that she was entitled to be compensated for the loss. During a three-week trial in Caroline County Circuit Court, K. Nichole Nesbitt and Joseph B. Wolf demonstrated that although development of a solution to the septic issues in the Town was a long and arduous undertaking, the Town had complied with the 1996 Consent Order by continuously working with the State of Maryland and Caroline County to bring public sewer to the Town. A jury took less than three hours to return a verdict in favor of the Town, finding that the Town had not breached the 1996 Consent Order. The case is styled Litz v. Maryland Department of the Environment, et al. Caroline County Circuit Court Case No. 05-C-10-013616.
