A judge last week threw out several counts of a lawsuit filed by a Seymour resident which claimed her neighbors’ bamboo plants invaded her property.
The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by Caryn Rickel, an outspoken advocate against the spread of bamboo plants.
In the lawsuit Rickel claimed that her neighbors planted invasive bamboo along the property line they share with her in 1997, and that the plant has encroached onto her property since 2005.
But Judge Maureen Keegan ruled last week at Superior Court in Milford that the state’s statute of limitations precludes several counts of the lawsuit from proceeding.
Judge Keegan’s decision came in response to a motion seeking summary judgment filed on behalf of two of the defendants in the case — Michael and Bobbi Komaromi — last month.
“In the present case, it is undisputed that the negligent act complained of occurred on or around July 1, 1997, when the defendants planted invasive bamboo on their property,” Judge Keegan wrote. “Moreover, it is undisputed that the plaintiff discovered the actionable harm in 2005, when she allegedly tried to hire a landscaper to remove the bamboo encroachment prior to installing a patio in her backyard.”
“Nevertheless, the plaintiff did not commence this action until November 5, 2010, which if outside of the time period articulated” in state law, Judge Keegan wrote on.
The judge’s full four-page ruling is posted at the end of the story.
Rickel, reached Wednesday via e‑mail, declined to comment on Judge Keegan’s ruling.
But the case is not yet over — though last week’s ruling excused two of the neighbors, the Komaromis, from the case, the lawsuit is still pending against two other neighbors, William and Laura Price.
State judicial branch records on the case indicate there will be a pretrial conference next month, with a trial scheduled for two days in early November.
The Prices’ lawyer, Stamford-based Robert Hickey, declined to comment Wednesday because the case is still pending.
Reached Wednesday, Bobbi Komaromi said she was relieved by the judge’s decision “because of the fact that we were completely innocent to begin with.”
“Immediately after she told us there was a problem with the bamboo, we went out and started to dig a trench and put in a barrier,” Komaromi said Wednesday. “That wasn’t good enough for her.”
“It’s a living nightmare,” Komaromi said of the case. “It’s an absolute living nightmare.”
Komaromi said she and her husband put in the plants because they wanted “a little bit of a privacy barrier” and have always maintained it properly and prevented it from spreading.
She said the whole issue has been blown out of proportion.
“There’s other things in the state that are problems besides bamboo,” Komaromi added. “It’s not on the invasive species list in Connecticut, it’s not on the invasive species list from the federal government.”
