Confidential
Settlement – $2,500,000Judge
Court
Orange Superior
Attorneys
Plaintiff
Experts
Plaintiff
Houshang Dezfulian
(technical)
J. Pearce Cashman
(technical)
Facts
In 1963, the plaintiff entered into a 50-year lease with a cross-defendant corporation. In 1983, that corporation sold the ground lease to the defendant/cross-complainant ground lessee for $750,000. Between 1963 and 1988, the real property subject to the ground lease was used for the operation of automobile dealerships by the ground lessee and cross-defendants, the sub-tenants. During this time, 55 underground lifts and 4 underground storage tanks were installed and used on the property by the cross-defendants. A trust owned property contiguous to the plaintiff's property and was also leased for use by automobile dealerships owned and operated by some of the cross-defendants. The cross-complainant ground lessee brought this action against the cross-defendants based on breach of lease, trespass, nuisance, negligence, fraud and indemity theories of recovery.
Settlement Discussions
A cross-defendant agreed to pay $2.5 million to the ground lessee in exchange for a dismissal of the cross-complaint. On Oct. 10, 1996 dismissal on the cross-complaint was filed.
Damages
The defendant/cross-complainant ground lessee claimed $11.0 million for assesment, remediation, rent loss and attorney's fees.
Other Information
The settlement was reached approximately four years and ten months after the case was filed. Settlement conferences were held for three weeks in 1995 and 1996 before Judge Judith Ryan, retired, of JAMS/Endispute and were concluded by Judge McDonald. In November and December 1995, a time qualified jury was selected over a three week period and at the time they were sworn in, all 20 jurors agreed to sit until June 1996. The jury was ordered back to receive evidence on Jan. 4, 1996. Following jury selection, the ground lessee and sub-tenants brought an Evidence Code º402 motion to excluded the plaintiff's expert testimony on stigma damages. At the conclusion of the 402 hearings, all expert testimony on stigma damages offered by the plaintiff was excluded. After this ruling, the plaintiff settled with the defendants and cross-defendants. The ground lesse then entered default judgments against all remaining, non-appearing cross-defendants except for one and a court trial was rescheduled for April 29, 1996. On May 6, 1996, the defendant ground lessee filed default judgment prove-ups against all remaining cross-defendants (except the one) and prior to trial, entered into settlement discussions with that cross-defendant resolving the remainder of the claims for $2.5 million.
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