FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A Baldwin County jury ruled Wednesday against 22 residents of Dogwood Dells subdivision, who sought more than $500,000 from the city of Fairhope, claiming the municipality was partially responsible for raw sewage from a privately owned sewer line flowing into their homes through city-owned water lines.

“I’m very pleased,” Mayor Tim Kant said Thursday. “We’ve known from the start that we were one of the victims like the rest of the owners over there. We take a lot of pride in providing our services. When somebody connected to our system, we reacted as quickly as we could to find the solution, and I think that’s what finally came out from the jury — that we did act responsibly.”

The residents had already settled individual cases brought in January 2006 against the Summerdale-based Baldwin County Sewer Service, which was not a party to the two-day trial that started Monday in Bay Minette. The terms of those settlements have remained private by agreement between the company and plaintiffs.

That company was fined $100,000 by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in December 2006, after the cross-connection was discovered in late 2005. By then, four months had passed in which raw sewage was delivered through the company’s sewer line, into the city’s water lines and then into more than a dozen homes in that subdivision on Fish River near Magnolia Springs, according to the lawsuit filed by the residents.

All but two of the 22 residents testified during the trial, with the cases of seven other plaintiffs being dismissed for not appearing in court, said Caine O’Rear, who represented the city.

“We proved there were about nine different violations by Baldwin County Sewer Service, O’Rear said Thursday. “Their contention was they had called in to mark the line, and that Fairhope had put some flags out that had mismarked it across the street, and the line was over where they were digging. We proved those weren’t Fairhope’s flags and that Fairhope did not even get that request because it had a wrong address on it.”

Caine said the residents also contended the city did not adequately respond to complaints of odor and discoloration.

“We established that Fairhope followed all ADEM regulations on testing,” said O’Rear, noting the city was never cited for any violations by ADEM, as was BCSS.

The plaintiffs sought damages of between $25,000 and $50,000 per resident, O’Rear said.

“It has been an extensively litigated case with more than 30 depositions,” said Jason McCormick, who represented the residents. “The jury made its decision, and we accept the jury’s decision.”

In addition to the testimony of the residents, Clarence Burke, BCSS owner, also testified, as well as a BCSS employee present during the cross-connection. Dan McCrory, city water and sewer superintendent, was the only Fairhope employee to testify for the defense, O’Rear said.

“I think the jury reached a fair and just verdict under the facts of the case,” O’Rear said.  “This was clearly an unfortunate situation caused entirely by Baldwin County Sewer Service’s negligence in connecting to Fairhope’s water line, and Fairhope responded promptly and appropriately to a difficult situation once it was discovered.”