SARANAC LAKE – An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by a retired couple whose house was damaged by flooding, triggered by blasting work for a village water project.

Lawyers representing the village’s insurance company and a pair of contractors settled the case last week with Jim Brooks, the attorney for Robert and Ruth Sofield of Saranac Lake. It came just days before the lawsuit was scheduled to go to trial.

The amount of the settlement wasn’t disclosed. The Sofields had sought $250,000 from the village and the contractors.

“All three entities, meaning the general contractor, the blaster and the village, each agreed they would contribute a certain amount of money toward a settlement,” Brooks said Tuesday. “The amount they contributed totaled sufficient funds that the clients were happy, and I thought it was fair, and so did the court, the defense attorneys and the insurers.”

The case dates to Aug. 29, 2011, when Northeast Drilling and Blasting, a subcontractor for Marcellus Construction Company of Syracuse, was blasting rock on Poplar Lane, on a hill above the Sofields’ two-story home on Tara Drive. The explosions damaged the foundation of the Sofields’ home and ruptured part of a 6-inch water pipe on Poplar Lane, causing “huge quantities” of water to flood into and damage their basement, the lawsuit alleged.

The Sofields claimed the village and the contractors were negligent in performing and supervising the blasting work, which was part of a $12 million, village-wide water system upgrade.

In court documents filed last year, attorneys and engineers hired by the contractors argued that the Sofields’ home had pre-existing foundation issues because it was built next to a hillside. They also blamed the village for incorrectly marking the location of the water main, which resulted in a charge being set near it, rupturing the main and flooding the Sofields’ basement. The village countered that the contractor was responsible for verifying the “tentative markings” village employees had made of the water main’s location.

The village and the contractors don’t admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

“Each disputes liability, as is standard in all settlement agreements,” Brooks said.

Village Manager John Sweeney said Tuesday he was aware of the settlement but hadn’t seen the stipulation yet.

“Any time an insurance issue is resolved, it’s a good thing,” he said.

Sweeney said any payment that’s part of the settlement will come from the village’s insurance company, New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal.

He said he didn’t want to speak about the allegations the Sofields made.

“I don’t know enough about it, other than what my part was, and my part was very minimal when it came to this,” Sweeney said. “Did I know what happened? Yes. Beyond that, we immediately contacted the insurance company, and you try to let them handle everything.”

“We weren’t saying that John Sweeney or Mr. Smith of such-and-such company did this intentionally,” Brooks said. “It was negligence.”

Brooks said the Sofields will use the settlement money to repair the foundation of their home. They were eager to reach out to contractors after hearing of the settlement, he said.

“They want the thing fixed, and they didn’t have the money to do it,” Brooks said. “It’s a very expensive repair. The wall that was damaged is right up against a hill, and in order to replace it, we’ve got to get the hill to keep pressing against the wall, which means you have to excavate a good portion of the hill so you can get in there.”

Brooks said prior attempts to settle the case weren’t successful. The case was scheduled to go to trial Monday in Essex County State Supreme Court in Elizabethtown.

Brooks said he was ready to bring it to trial, but “then all of a sudden, the wallets opened.

“They finally came up with appropriate money. They went up, and we came down, and we met where everybody was happy.”