A family is suing Fort Jackson's housing provider, alleging continuous sewage leaks led to their 4-year-old son contracting encephalitis, which can cause permanent brain damage.
Travis Wilson, a military chaplain, and his wife Jaclyn signed the lease for a house on the Fort Jackson military base in December 2022 and moved in with their six children shortly after. Problems with the house, particularly sewage problems, were immediately apparent, according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month.
An upstairs toilet overflowed almost as soon as the family moved in. When maintenance workers arrived, they "simply locked the door to the bathroom and said they would return later." While the Wilsons waited for the maintenance crew to return, sewage leaked through the ceiling and into the kitchen below, according to the complaint.
When the workers returned, they claimed to have fixed the problem. But in early March 2023, the upstairs toilet overflowed again, and again the sewage leaked into the ceiling and then the kitchen below the upstairs bathroom.
"Instead of fixing the problem, [maintenance crews] removed the toilet and put it in the adjacent tub for weeks," the complaint continues.
The family of eight had to leave the home temporarily and stay at a hotel. When they returned home from the hotel, the toilet still had not been fixed, according to the complaint.
During the time of the second sewage leak, the Wilsons' children were living in the house. A child who was 4 years old in March 2023, identified in the complaint as M.W., contracted a dangerous bacterial infection that affects brain function and motor skills, which the Wilsons believe was caused by the sewage.
After the second sewage leak, Jaclyn noticed M.W. had become tired and lethargic, and soon his face began to droop on one side. The family raced him to an emergency room where doctors determined he needed to be rushed to another facility, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Eight neurologists examined M.W. and found signs of "acute disseminated encephalitis," which is a rare infection that affects the brain and spinal cord.
Now, the family is suing Fort Jackson Housing LLC and Balfour Beatty Military Housing Management LLC for a laundry list of causes, including negligence, false and misleading marketing practices and the infliction of emotional distress.
They are being represented by Hilton Head attorney Robert Metro, and Hampton-based attorneys Ronnie Crosby and Derek Tarver of the Parker Law Firm. That law firm was previously called Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick, and was home to now-disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh, who is serving life in prison for the murder of his wife and son.
A spokesperson for Balfour Beatty said the company would not comment on the lawsuit, other than to say, "We think the claims are entirely without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously."
Providing safe living conditions on military bases has been a problem nationwide for years. In 2018 and 2019, the news outlet Reuters published an investigation that found military families were living in squalid conditions in privately-managed properties on military bases across the U.S. The report found mold, rodents, dangerous wiring and more problems.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon launched a website for residents to report problems with military housing managed by private companies.
"The Department of Defense has a moral obligation to ensure that the spaces where our service members and their families live are healthy, functional, and resilient," said Deborah Rosenblum at the time, acting deputy undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, according to reporting from the military trade publication Stars and Stripes.
Balfour Beatty has also been in hot water recently. In December 2021, Balfour Beatty Communities LLC pleaded guilty to defrauding the military and agreed to pay $65 million in fines and restitution. Balfour Beatty Military Housing Management LLC is currently being sued in Georgia and Texas for allegedly providing unsafe living conditions to military families on bases in those states.
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