Appellate court rules on Poway property lawsuit
The two sides in a long-running legal fight involving the City of Poway and two property owners each won and lost in a recent state appellate court ruling.
In a decision dated June 29, the Fourth District court reversed a 2009 decision by Superior Court Judge Frederic Linc, who had granted judgment in favor of Poway residents Lee and Don Tartre and Diane and Alex Armstrong against the city for violations of their civil rights under federal law. The court also reversed the trial judge’s award of $407,000 in attorney’s fees under the federal civil right law.
However, the court affirmed a May 2009 jury verdict for $187,272.80 in damages for negligence when city employees removed the property owners’ trees.
The lawsuit on behalf of the Tartres and the Armstrongs was filed after Poway employees mistakenly relied on an old sewer easement description when undertaking efforts to clear the easement of trees and other growth in January 2007.
“There is no question that we made an error by relying on outdated documents,” Mayor Don Higginson said this week in a prepared statement. “We acknowledged the error and the city’s insurance provider had already prepared a check to pay the jury’s award at the time of the trial court decision.”
The City Council is expected to review the ruling during a closed session with its attorney on July 17.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Karen Forstrom, was unavailable on Friday to comment on the ruling.
No related posts.
Short URL: http://www.pomeradonews.com/?p=26606
Posted by Steve Dreyer
on Jul 6 2012. Filed under Local News, Poway.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Take the check and let's just end this ridiculous waste of money on legal fees. The City admitted they made a mistake and are prepared to pay for it.
Thank you to all the other homeowners abutting the sewer easement who chose not to sue the city in an attempt to enrich themselves after temporarily losing some greenery.
The Court of Appeal specifically observed, at p.15 of its June 29, 2012 Opinion, that "City employees also met with Tartre and Diane Armstrong at their properties and showed them all of the trees that would be removed, which had previously been marked. Plaintiffs (Tartre and Armstrong) did not object to the scope of the project." Thus, the Court found that "the jury could have reasonably inferred that Plaintiffs consented…." No kidding!
This case should never have been brought, and the Tartres and Armstrongs should hang their heads in shame! The residents of the neighborhood know that their real objective (besides trying to take taxpayer money) was to close off the trail behind their houses used by so many walkers, runners and neighborhood children going to and from Painted Rock Elementary School, and the tree-trimming debacle was just a big smoke screen. Thankfully, they will have to eat the many hundreds of thousands of dollars they spent in legal fees and costs on this ridiculous case, because the Court correctly ruled the City does not have to pay for that.