Woman sues Sultan over fall into great-grandfather's grave

As Dorothy VerValen stepped forward to scrape moss from her great-grandfather's headstone, the soft grass below her broke apart. She rapidly sunk into Harry Smith's grave.

VerValen's right foot crashed into what was left of Smith's rotten 53-year-old casket. Her left ankle, which remained above ground, fractured.

"I thought I was in a Stephen King movie," VerValen said by phone from the Kalispell, Mont., medical office where she works. "I was literally up to my arms in grass."

After VerValen's daughter helped drag the then-375-pound woman out of the sinkhole at the Sultan Cemetery, VerValen hobbled back to the car with a swollen ankle and splinters in the other leg.

She has filed a civil suit against the city of Sultan for alleged negligence. The 51-year-old is seeking undetermined damages as compensation for injuries, legal costs and the emotional distress she suffered at the cemetery on March 29, 2000.

The trial should take place early next year, said Robert Butler, a Bellingham attorney representing VerValen.

"They know sinkholes happen, especially in pre-1960s graves," Butler said. "They're not doing anything to prevent it from happening."

But Diana Blakney, a Mercer Island attorney representing the city of Sultan, said it is not the city's duty to inspect every square inch of the cemetery to make sure it is safe.

"The city of Sultan wants people to walk around, but they don't need to be out there every minute making it safe," Blakney said.

Blakney cited the state Recreational Use Act as a reason why VerValen's suit should be dropped. Like many parks, the cemetery is open 24 hours a day and does not charge visitors a fee, and visitors are generally responsible for their own safety.

"There is no dispute that the city had no actual knowledge of the sinkhole before (VerValen's) accident," Blakney wrote in response. Therefore, she said, the city "had no duty to warn or otherwise protect her."

Blakney also wrote that between January and March 2000, Sultan public-works employees had spent 36 hours working at the cemetery.

"Despite their nearly daily presence none of the employees reported any potential hazard at or near Harry Smith's gravesite," she wrote.

In sworn testimony, Connie Dunn, the director of public works, and Tony Beedle, a public-works employee, both said there have been other sinkholes at the cemetery.

Sinkholes that have appeared in the past have "all resulted from the use of heavy equipment, such as a riding mower or a backhoe, breaking through the turf," Blakney wrote.

Blakney said public-works employees try not to drive the backhoe over graves. But she said graves from before 1958 are especially problematic.

Before then, wooden coffins were not sealed in concrete liners. Because wooden coffins rot after years in moist soil, the older graves are more prone to sinkholes, Blakney wrote.

Some graves at the Sultan Cemetery date to the 1890s. Though sinkholes are a natural occurrence, Butler said the cemetery can take precautions to better ensure more people aren't injured.

Butler suggested that public-works employees carefully search for sinkholes and fill them in with dirt or sand.

He said that if sinkholes are ignored, people aren't going to want to visit the cemetery out of fear that they will endure what VerValen did.

VerValen said she still suffers from nightmares because of the accident. She used to visit the Sultan Cemetery annually to drop flowers on her seven relatives' graves but now refuses to go back.

"I literally had one foot in the grave," VerValen said. "It was scary."

Jennifer Sullivan: 425-783-0604 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com