A Gold Coast couple is suing the Latin School of Chicago over damages to their historic home that they say were caused by negligent construction at an adjacent school property.

Bernadette and Ferdinand Korndorf, of 1540 N. Dearborn, filed a complaint against the Latin school, 59 W. North Boulevard, claiming that excavation work performed by contractors on an expansion project in May of 2006 caused structural and interior damage to their three-story home.

The suit, filed in late August, claims damages exceeding $500,000, including: settlement and tilting at north end of the century-old home, cracks in the building’s limestone foundation which resulted in water leakage and mold, separation of walls and joints and the dislocation of door frames, among other listed damages.

Cases like this one are usually determined by statutes designed to protect adjacent land owners from their property being undermined, said Joseph B. Carini III, an attorney at Johnson & Bell, Ltd. and co-chair of the firm’s Construction Practice Group.

“This is true without regard to the age of the adjacent property,” said Carini. “Proving compliance with the applicable statutes will be most important in defending the case.”

According to the couple’s complaint, which also names the contractor and a construction company as defendants, the damages were caused by a pneumatic hammer and a vibratory driver being used to drive sheet piling for the installation of an earth retention wall for a middle school facility being constructed at 45 W. North.

The complaint states that work continued on after a vibration monitor alarm at the home sounded several times in one day.

Requests for comment from the Korndorfs and their attorney were not returned, and a spokesperson for the school declined to comment on the case.

“Ordinarily an owner like Latin School is protected in cases like these by the contractor actually doing the work who will certainly defend its conduct and statute compliance,” Carini said.

The complaint marks the second time that the Latin school has found itself on the other end of a resident-filed lawsuit in recent years. In 2008, activists from the Lincoln Park-based group Protect Our Parks sued the school over a privatization deal between Latin and the Chicago Park District that would have seen Latin receive preferential use of a soccer field being built on public land just north of the school in return for construction funding.

Established in 1888, the Latin college preparatory school serves students in grades pre-kindergarten through twelve. The school’s prestigious campus includes three buildings — the oldest of which, at 1531 N. Dearborn, was built it 1926. The building at 45 W. North was completed in the fall of 2007.