OSO — A civil trial to explore whether anyone should be held responsible for the deadly Oso mudslide now won’t happen until June 2016.
King County Superior Court Judge Roger Rogoff on Thursday granted a motion brought by the state, Snohomish County and a Skagit County timber company, seeking to continue the case. Trial earlier had been scheduled for October.
The mudslide case is complex, with the parties indicating up to 300 witnesses and 50 experts may be called to testify, Rogoff said. Moreover, the state asked the court for time to conduct drilling and monitoring on the hill to gather and analyze data about how the site’s geology interacts with groundwater.
Lawyers have been working hard, but more time is necessary, Rogoff said in a written order continuing the trial.
“While these timelines seem long to those seeking justice on both sides of this case, in the context of other significant cases that are tried in this courthouse, the amount of work completed by the lawyers is staggering and can serve as a model for the manner in which discovery should be conducted in all cases,” the judge wrote.
A total of 43 people died and dozens of homes were destroyed on March 22, 2014 when the hill above the Steelhead Haven neighborhood collapsed.
Lawyers for those harmed by the slide filed multiple wrongful death and personal injury claims, most conslidated into the lawsuit in Rogoff’s court.
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