[fabsroman]

Val,

Believe it or not, I dealt with a case like this a couple of years ago. I wasn't the lead attorney on it, but I did some legal research involving it. Our case involved a housing development that was built on top of an old landfill. The waste was decaying and creating methane gas, or some other harmful gas. The gas vents that the developer put into the landfill were not doing their job and the harmful gases were coming up through the basement of people's homes. The fire department was called in when people started getting sick and they took some readings. Turns out the the readings were off the charts and the houses were condemned until the problem could be fixed. Of course, the developer was pointing the finger elsewhere. Utterly insane that something like this has to go to litigation. The developer should have paid back the homeowners, without any finger pointing, and then sued the people/entities it thought was responsible for the problem for the cost of settling the claims. Nothing in today's world is easy, especially not after the insurance companies and attorneys get involved.