Malibu
A Santa Monica Superior Court judge has ruled that the first of hundreds of lawsuits filed by homeowners in the Big Rock Mesa lawsuit will be tried April 8 and separated from a countersuit filed in the case by governmental agencies.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Raymond Choate severed the countersuit filed against Big Rock homeowners Margaret and August Hansch from the damage lawsuit the Hansches filed against the governmental agencies.
The Hansch lawsuit is one of 230 claims filed by Big Rock homeowners last spring against the County of Los Angeles and the county Flood Control District and Waterworks 29, and the state Coastal Commission and Department of Tranportation. The homeowners contend that the agencies were to blame for the massive landslide that occurred on Big Rock Mesa in September, 1983.
Last fall, the waterworks district and other governmental agencies countersued more than 300 past and present homeowners, developers, architects and geologists, including the Hansches, claiming they are to blame for the slide.
Choate’s ruling does not affect the other lawsuits and countersuits, which are pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.
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