49ers’ Joe Montana sues San Francisco over sewage flooding homes

Joe Montana played most of his Hall of Famer home games at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, a place known for its “anything but a pleasant aroma.”

The legendary 49ers quarterback may be living in similar conditions these days.

Montana and its neighbors have filed a lawsuit against San Francisco alleging “hazardous, toxic, hazardous and unsafe” conditions caused “highly contaminated and toxic feces and other raw sewage” to overflow into their homes.

Montana and his wife Jennifer are among more than 50 plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Aug. 24 in San Francisco County Superior Court, following suits filed earlier this summer. All of the plaintiffs reside in the Marina District, a neighborhood on the city’s north shore.

A Montana representative did not immediately respond to a request from the Times for comment from the four-time Super Bowl champion on the matter.

The lawsuit alleges years of poor maintenance of a drainage and sewage system that disproportionately affects residents of the marina and other surrounding areas.

“Over the past decade, the city has continued to repair and improve its system ‘upstream’ of plaintiffs’ properties, with a direct result of increasing volumes of water and sewage being directed into the areas surrounding plaintiffs’ properties no significant “downstream” improvements were made,” the lawsuit states. “The net effect of the city’s actions is to cause even greater damage to plaintiffs’ property.”

According to the lawsuit, the situation worsened during last winter’s atmospheric flow events, as failure of the drainage and sewage system caused “streams of water and untreated sewage to inundate plaintiffs’ properties.”

“As a direct result of the failures of the combined drainage and sewage system in December 2022/January 2023, a mixture of raw sewage and stormwater flowed in and around plaintiffs’ properties, permeating floors, walls and floors and depositing heavily contaminated and toxic feces and other raw sewage in and around plaintiffs’ homes,” the lawsuit reads. “The city failed to take remedial action to properly remove the pollutants from plaintiffs’ properties and surrounding soils, despite knowing that plaintiffs, their families, their children and other citizens are continually exposed to these pollutants.”

Jen Kwart, a spokeswoman for City Atty. David Chiu said in an emailed statement to The Times:

“The intensity and duration of the storm that hit the city on December 31, 2022 was almost unprecedented. It was the strongest storm to hit San Francisco in more than 170 years. The storm, and not the city’s infrastructure, was responsible for the widespread flooding across the city. We are reviewing the complaint and will respond in court.”

The plaintiffs are seeking damages, attorneys’ fees and other costs. They’re asking for a jury trial.