A Roanoke Rapids business owner is pursuing a lawsuit over damages incurred at his business during heavy rains before the problems were fixed.

Nationwide Insurance owner Jack Boseman said he has talked with city officials several times but keeps getting the runaround from them.

He is seeking more than $10,000 from the city to reimburse him for damages done to his Tenth Street office during heavy rains.

Boseman put the city on notice last year through a letter from his attorney, Michael R. Ortiz. In April Ortiz filed a lawsuit in Halifax County Superior Court on the matter.

Boseman said this week his attorney is ready to begin collecting depositions in the matter.

The letter the attorney sent to the city mirrors the lawsuit. “Over the last several years, the property has suffered extensive damage; indeed, virtually every occurrence of heavy rain — even if the downpour is relatively brief — results in flooding and damage to the property,” the letter notes.
Ortiz says the flooding results from a “series of engineering errors made the city, not the least of which involves the ditches located in the alley directly behind the property.”
The letter says the city approved the removal of the ditch along the road on the opposite side of the alley, “Thereby allowing water to wrongly be diverted onto the Boseman property.”
Ortiz maintains the city admitted this approval during a July 1 meeting. “Also, the ditch on the Boseman side of the alley was not only constructed improperly — the design is such that water actually flows uphill — but is also burdened with severe overuse — allowed by the city — which ultimately results in a backup of water that has the potential to, and often does, enter into and damage the property.”
Boseman has attempted to work with the city, the letter notes, through numerous phone calls and telephone conversations. “In the rare instance when the city has been willing to communicate with Mr. Boseman, it has indicated it will bear no responsibility for helping resolve a situation which it created.”
The property, the letter says, has already been extensively damaged by “the constant flooding, and the damage only increases with each heavy rainfall.”
Additionally, the letter says, “Mr. Boseman has long been prepared and eager to repaint the interior walls of the property, as well as install new carpet, but cannot do so out of fear that more water damage would ruin any improvement.”

In November the city constructed a swale to help alleviate the problems.

Mayor Emery Doughtie said the city is waiting to hear back from its insurance company on the matter.