Inverse Condemnation

Representative Cases

• Represented Los Angeles County and related public entities against hundreds of homeowner landslide claims alleging that the delivery and control of public water to the Big Rock Mesa caused the ground water to build up, resulting in landsliding of the entire mesa toward the ocean. After prevailing at the highly publicized test trial, the larger case was favorably settled.

• Represented a major developer against the City of San Diego for breach of a Development Agreement and inverse condemnation. After prevailing at trial, the case was reversed on appeal, relitigated, then favorably settled after many years of intensive litigation.

• Represented a large group of homeowners against a City within Los Angeles County whose properties suffered severe landslide and mud damage caused by a public improvement resulting in the dangerous diversion of surface waters. Plaintiffs prevailed at trial.

• Represented the City of Ventura in response to a lawsuit filed as a result of damage to homes built along a man-made waterway that was experiencing navigability problems. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented a large group of homeowners against a City in Orange County regarding cuts made into a long, steep hillside behind the Plaintiffs homes, to install a horseback riding trail. The cuts were made along the toe of their engineered residential slope. The cuts destabilized the hill behind the homes of the Plaintiffs, which failed many years later during rainfall. Plaintiffs prevailed at trial.

• Represented a Los Angeles County Transit agency against numerous claims of individual building damage allegedly caused by regional construction of a subway system. Most cases were settled. Several were tried to defense verdicts.

• Represented homeowners against the City of Los Angeles in two different cases involving hillside cuts impacting an Encino hillside property and later, a Sherman Oaks property. Both cases were favorably settled.

• Represented a small hotel owner against a major private contractor and a City in Los Angeles County which partnered together to reconstruct a blighted area, destroying the small hotel in the process. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented a residential homeowner against the City of Los Angeles following a significant back up in the local sewer main, causing damage to the home. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented the owner of a residential oceanfront home in Northern California against Caltrans for highway drainage activities which caused significant damage to the Plaintiffs home. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented a large group of homeowners against the City and County of San Bernardino and its Flood Control District for major diversions of surface water flow, causing mass neighborhood flooding. The case was favorably settled near trial.

• Represented a large group of homeowners against Caltrans for cuts along a hillside abutting a local highway in Santa Barbara causing a major landslide years later. The case was favorably settled just before trial.

• Represented a group of homeowners against a private developer for failing to properly engineer the slope behind their homes in San Bernardino County, which eventually resulted in landsliding. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented homeowners against the San Bernardino County Flood Control District for designing and permitting its drainage facilities to overflow and damage their private homes. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented two large groups of homeowners in San Clemente against Caltrans for vibration related damage caused by their highway widening activities. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented damaged homeowners against the City of Long Beach for damage caused by the collapse of a City tree after maintenance work. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority against numerous claims from property owners along Hollywood Blvd, claiming that tunneling activities caused a 300-foot section of the street to collapse. The case was favorably settled.

• Represented a very large group of high-rise condominium owners against the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a regional Transit agency in San Francisco, for settlement and tilting damage caused by the construction of an adjacent regional transit center.  The settlement in this case is currently pending.