The estate of a longtime Rye resident is blaming the city for years of alleged property damage from a municipal pump station project that has left his Clinton Avenue home unsellable.
The city and its contractor, ELQ Industries, unlawfully entered the property of George Ford Sr. without permission, digging up the lawn, cutting down trees, and failing to properly repair damage for more than a year, according to a lawsuit filed in Westchester County Supreme Court.
The family of George Ford Sr., alleges, in the court filings, that the city also neglected to maintain a nearby stormwater drainage system, leading to flooding that filled the home’s lower level with mud and silt.
City Attorney Kristen Wilson declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
The dispute stems from the city’s construction of a sewer pump station that began around April 2022 — while Ford Sr. was still alive — on municipal land adjacent to his 48 Clinton Ave. property. The project was intended to improve sewage infrastructure for the surrounding Dublin neighborhood, but required underground piping work that extended onto the homeowner›s private property, according to the suit.
George Ford Jr., the executor of the estate and son of the late homeowner, said he initially met with city officials in early 2022 to express his concerns before the project began.
Ford Sr. died a few months later in May 2022, at 84.
The lawsuit, filed in August 2024, accuses the city of beginning excavation in 2023 without notifying the family, leaving behind an open pit covered by metal plates and fencing for nearly a year.
