A Morris County man is touting a recent court decision as a possible turning point in a decades-old dispute with a neighboring farm over stormwater runoff.
An appellate judge panel reversed a lower court ruling on New Year’s Eve that dismissed a lawsuit from William Asdal filed in 2018.
Asdal sued Chester Township for what he claimed was a nonconforming stormwater runoff system that had created a “12-foot-deep cavernous ravine and a path of hundreds of yards of dead trees on his land.”
The appellate court concluded Asdal had been caught “in a multi-year Catch-22” between agencies, and was left “without an effective remedy.”
“Our suit was against Chester Township for failure to enforce stormwater regulations,” Asdal told NJ Advance Media. “They have an inconsistent application of municipal oversight. The development has well outgrown what initially would have been called a farm stand.”
Asdal said the farm then asked to be part of the defense in the court complaint.
“For 36 years we’ve been subject to dozens of complaints from Mr. Asdal alleging a number of different types of violations, none of which have been proven to be true,” Kurt Alstede, one of the owners of the family farm, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday.
A request for comment from the township was not immediately provided.
The case is set to resume this month in district Superior Court, but has languished for more than seven years. The appeals court case was initially argued in 2022.
“The trial court has, appropriately, deferred jurisdiction in the first instance to the Morris CADB (County Agricultural Development Board), which, because it is without authority to determine whether Alstede’s operation is in compliance with the Stormwater Management Rules and without the ability to compel the Township to make the determination, has found itself unable to resolve Asdal’s complaint,” the appeals court said in December. “Because that situation will not change, it makes no sense to defer further to the Board. The court has the authority to ensure resolution of Asdal’s complaint by permitting Asdal’s complaint in mandamus to proceed and must do so.”
Meanwhile, Asdal fears the damage to his property is irreparable.
“We are dedicated to providing high-quality homegrown local fruits and vegetables and memorable farm experiences,” the mission statement on Alstede’s website said.
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Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com.