Confidential
Settlement – $566,176Judge
Court
Orange Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Defendant
Edwin J. Richards Jr.
(Kutak Rock LLP)
Daniel R. Sullivan
(Sullivan Ballog & Williams LLP)
Experts
Plaintiff
Dennis A. Evans
(technical)
Defendant
Marc Delattre
(technical)
Theodore V. Hromadka II
(technical)
Facts
The plaintiff homeowners were next-door neighbors on Palo Alto Street in a subdivision in the City of Dana
Point. They contended that a 40-year-old city-owned corrugated metal storm drain traversing plaintiffÆs
property leaked, contributing to the failure of the hillside behind their homes in February and March 1998.
The plaintiffs also maintained that a city road cut made in the early 1960Æs at the bottom of the slope
destabilized the slope and contributed to the failure. The plaintiffs alleged that the failure was a deep-seated
landslide. The plaintiffsÆ expert, Dennis Evans, a geologist and geotechnical engineer, testified that the storm
drain and road cuts were substantial contributing causes to a deep-seated failure of the slope behind the
plaintiffsÆ homes.
Defendants City of Dana Point and Orange County contended that the hill failed because
of natural groundwater conditions and the 1998 El Nino rainstorms. The defendant cityÆs experts,
geologist Marc Delattre and hydrologist Theodore Hromadka, Ph.D., testified that the cause of
damage was a high groundwater level and the El Nino rains of 1998.
Result
The court found in favor of the plaintiffs and against the city in the first part of the bifurcated trial. The issue was whether the city had inversely condemned two homeownersÆ hillside properties by making road cuts that destabilized the hillside or by maintaining a leaky storm drain in an easement through one of the homeownerÆs property. The court found that there was such an inverse condemnation and a nuisance, as well as a dangerous condition of public property. Before the second part of the trial on damages, the case settled for a total of $566,176. The city agreed to pay $536,176 and the county, which had reached a settlement prior to the first part of the trial - agreed to pay $30,000. The city also agreed to repair the hillside immediately to a 1.5 factor of safety and repair any consequential damages.
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