Countersuit Stymies City Effort to Unhorse Stable Operator

The operator of Horsemen’s Park stable, in San Diego-owned Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve, has filed a countersuit to block a city suit aimed at evicting her.

Stable operator Barbara Gerrior will continue in business until litigation is completed, Deputy City Atty. Harold Valderhaug said. City officials would not comment further on the suit.

Gerrior said Tuesday that “it could be months, even years,” before the legal tangle is cleared up. She has consistently been at odds with the city since she assumed operation of the North City stable in 1978.

Gerrior’s most recent problems began in August, when the City Council ordered the termination of a 15-year lease she signed in 1982 to operate Horsemen’s Park. While Gerrior has at times been late paying her rent, the dispute centered on her inability to obtain a $1-million insurance policy to protect the city against liability claims that might stem from injuries suffered by riders renting horses.

Horsemen’s Park discontinued its popular and lucrative horse rides several months ago when its old policy ran out, although the 30 horses it hired out are still boarded at the stable. On Sept. 10, when Gerrior had still not obtained the insurance policy, she was sent an eviction notice by the city ordering her to vacate by Oct. 1.

On Oct. 5, when she refused to discontinue operating the stable, the city filed suit to speed the eviction. Last week, Gerrior said, she filed a countersuit, claiming that she had been unable to obtain the $1-million policy mandated by the city.

“This shows a lack of good faith on the city’s part, not ours,” Gerrior said Tuesday. “We have been diligently pursuing a suitable insurance policy for 10 months, but it just is not obtainable. Putting an inexperienced rider on a horse is very dangerous, and insurance companies are not willing any longer to cover this activity the way the city wants us to. The best I could find was a $500,000 policy.”

Council members have insisted that another operator could be found to operate a rental horse program with adequate insurance.

Horsemen’s Park had been the only stable offering rental horses in the City of San Diego. Several stables in the unincorporated area of San Diego County are still operating, Gerrior said.