DELTONA, Fla. – A recent legal battle alleging that the city of Deltona was responsible for flooding homes in the Stone Island neighborhood following Hurricane Ian has reached its conclusion with the case being dismissed.

This past Tuesday, a judge ruled in favor of Deltona by issuing a summary judgment, effectively closing the lawsuit.

Situated on the northern shores of Lake Monroe near Deltona, the Stone Island neighborhood experienced significant flooding after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida in 2022, affecting numerous homes.

[WATCH: Legal Action by Stone Island Residents Against Deltona Over Flooding]

Residents had pursued legal action seeking compensation from the city of Deltona for the damages incurred.

In the lawsuit filed in 2023, the residents said the city’s decision to open an emergency stormwater overflow connection to the east of the neighborhood, without approval from the St. Johns River Water Management District, sent “hundreds of millions of gallons of water to Stone Island.”

The city, however, said Stone Island was already within FEMA’s 100-year flood zone and subject to various levels of flooding from Lake Monroe and the St. Johns River, and when Hurricane Ian hit the area, the amount of rainfall amounted to a one-in-200-year event for the St. Johns River Basins.

[WATCH: Flooding persists in Deltona weeks after Hurricane Ian]

“Despite the passage of over two years since this case was filed, there is no record evidence — namely, expert testimony or evidence — to support any argument that but for the city’s actions, plaintiffs’ properties would not have flooded,” the city’s attorneys argued.

The judge agreed that the city should avoid liability for the flooding on Stone Island because the situation was an actual emergency that posed an imminent danger. The judge also ruled that, given the nature of the emergency, the city didn’t have to wait for authorization from SJRWMD.

The city got that authorization on Oct. 13, 15 days after Ian made landfall, and the city was allowed to keep the interconnect open through April 2024 because of Hurricane Nicole.

The SJRWMD then allowed the city to reopen the interconnect from August 2024 through February 2025 because of Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Milton.