Dead Plainfield Farmer's Estate Sued By Neighbors

PLAINFIELD, IL — The estate of a dead Plainfield farmer was sued by neighbors who claim illegal dumping has altered the flow of the DuPage River.

Christopher Jenkins, 40, and Kimmy Elitzer, 51, sued the estate of Herman Fritz, as well as Ram Construction and Landscaping, R&R Septic and Sewer Service, Universal Concrete Systems, and Christensen Excavating and Trucking.

Plainfield attorney John Schrock filed the lawsuit in Will County court.

Fritz was arrested in May 2015 on charges of criminal disposal of waste, air pollution and water pollution. Six months earlier, prosecutors secured a civil injunction forbidding Fritz from dumping on his property.

Just a couple months after he was arrested, while he was free on bond, Fritz drove his pickup truck into the back of a tractor-trailer and died. Fritz was 78 when he was killed.

Jenkins and Elitzer claim in their lawsuit that Fritz allowed Ram Construction and Landscaping, R&R Septic and Sewer Service, Universal Concrete Systems, and Christensen Excavating and Trucking to dump garbage — including “toxic” and “hazardous” materials — on his property along the bank of the DuPage River and into the river itself. Fritz then used his tractor to bury the trash, the suit said, and “over time,” the river bank expanded and extended away from Fritz’s land toward the home Jenkins and Elitzer bought on South McKenna Drive in September 2011.

Berms and a gravel road built by Fritz also altered the flow of the river, the suit said.

This has caused the river bank on Jenkins and Elitzer’s property to “fail and become unstable,” the lawsuit said, and now their “entire rear deck system … requires replacement.”

Fritz also burned “contaminants and used tires” on his property, the lawsuit said, producing “large clouds of thick, heavy smoke.”

Jenkins and Elitzer took Fritz to court when he was still alive when they attempted to obtain a restraining order against him.

Jenkins said Fritz and five other, unidentified men came to his home and were “ringing the bell and banging on the door.”

“I fear for my life,” Jenkins said, “as Herman is becoming more aggressive toward me and now involving other men in this.”