Painful pothole lesson in Waterford

Cynthia Johnson of Montville was on her way from church one day in July when she hit a large pothole on Maple Lane in Waterford, right behind the Quaker Hill Mini Mall.

Her car, a 2000 Nissan Maxima, immediately began making a "clunky sort of noise" and Johnson turned around to investigate.

She found the pothole and, true to her professional instincts - she works in the New London police records department - she called Waterford dispatch to report the hazard.

The incident was documented. She was told someone would be out to put a warning cone near it.

Johnson also took a picture of the big crater, deep enough to consume most of a can of soda, which she added to give the photograph scale.

Now, almost four months later, the pothole is fixed, Johnson's Maxima still drives horribly and she's learned a painful lesson about Waterford's insurance company's pothole rule of prior knowledge.

Johnson first filed her claim with the town. They told her to check back, and she kept checking all summer and kept being told that they had to hear back from the insurance company.

Finally, not long ago, she called Waterford's insurance carrier directly and was told the claim was denied because there was no evidence that the town knew there was a pothole there before Johnson hit it.

Surely this is based on some legal decision that found some town somewhere not liable for damage from a pothole because they couldn't he held responsible for something they didn't know about.

This may make some sense, to lawyers, but not to Johnson, who said she and her husband are struggling to make ends meet, with job furloughs and overtime cutbacks, and have been unable to afford the repairs to the Maxima, estimated to cost $490, for a new strut, labor and alignment.

"I feel like I did everything right. I was driving carefully. I called them and reported it. I filled out all the paperwork," she said. "I did everything I was supposed to and they're not taking care of their end. That's why we pay taxes."

I asked a spokesman from Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency, a member-owned company that insures municipalities and public agencies, about Johnson's case, and he said he would get back to me if he could comment.

He didn't.

I also spoke with Waterford First Selectman Dan Steward, who sounded a little sympathetic to Johnson's predicament, but, in the end, said the decision rests with the town's insurance company.

He did suggest she could call her own insurance company, although I suspect that, even if they honored a claim, there wouldn't be much left after a deductible.

Steward also said the town is diligent about tending to potholes and that town employees are instructed to immediately report whenever they see them.

Johnson, though, is a little suspicious of the town getting a pass under the no-prior-knowledge rule, since Maple Lane is a heavily traveled road and it seems unlikely she was the first to hit that particular large hole.

She also questions the principle of prior knowledge, since, as she points out, it wouldn't prevent someone from collecting against her renter's insurance policy, for instance, if they were bitten by her dog.

In that case, she reasoned, she would have no prior knowledge, because the dog has never bitten anyone before.

This is the opinion of David Collins.