Ignored Court Order : DWP Must Pay for Cutting Off Water

The dry spell that Mary and Vernell Ramsey and their seven children went through earlier this year has cost the Department of Water and Power $3,000.

The DWP was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines and $1,000 in attorney fees by Municipal Court Judge Harold J. Sinclair, who ruled that the agency “willfully failed” to comply with a court order last May to turn the water back on at the Ramsey’s rented Lake View Terrace home.

Sinclair’s ruling coincides with public criticism by several Los Angeles City Council members of a DWP policy that allows water or electricity to apartment buildings with “master meters” to be cut off when a landlord does not pay the bill.

Apartment Incident Told

The criticism stems from an incident last week in which water was turned off at a 24-unit apartment complex near downtown Los Angeles because of an unpaid bill by the landlord.

But James Derry, director of customer service for DWP, said the Ramseys need not have gone without a drop of running water. “I told Mrs. Ramsey that all she needed to do was supply the rental agreement that showed the landlord was responsible for the water,” he said. “She never produced it.”

The water was cut off 10 to 15 times because the Ramseys’ landlord, who was responsible for paying the water bill, owed $713.14 in delinquent bills, said Mary Ramsey.

“It was very aggravating,” said Ramsey, who has since moved with her family to Hanson Hills, near Pacoima. “The longest stretch was about a week. We didn’t have money to rent a motel room, so we went to relatives’ homes, had bottled water and also used a neighbor’s water hose.”

When their water was again shut off in May, the Ramseys sought help from David Pallack, an attorney for the San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services Inc. Pallack filed a $25,000 lawsuit against DWP and won a temporary restraining order.

Unfairness Charged

The lawsuit, which accuses the agency of unfair business practices, violation of the Ramseys’ civil rights and infliction of emotional distress, is still pending in Municipal Court.

Meanwhile, it was disclosed that the landlord also was not paying his mortgage. The bank holding the mortgage on the house foreclosed and new owners took over. The new owners agreed to assume responsibility for current water bills, but refused to pay the delinquent $713.14, Pallack said.

“What it amounted to is that nobody wanted to pay somebody else’s bill,” he added.

Pallack obtained the temporary restraining order on May 23, the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. It was served on Evangeline Binninger and Judith Davison, two customer-service employees in the DWP Van Nuys office.

But the water was not turned on until a few days later, when the Ramseys complained to DWP’s emergency services office. After that, it was shut off once again, and then turned on again, Pallack said.

Pallack then filed contempt-of-court charges against DWP and Binninger and Davison. “I filed because they failed to turn it on even though they had a court order,” he said.

The contempt charges were argued before Judge Sinclair on Nov. 10, but the ruling was not handed down until Wednesday. Sinclair said in his written ruling that DWP and the two employees “had knowledge of the court order, the ability to comply with it, and that each willfully failed to comply.”

Sinclair fined the DWP $1,000 and Binninger and Davison $500 each. The agency was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fee to attorney Pallack.

Derry argued that the department complied with the court order but that, “through an error or a routine follow-up,” the tap was turned off again.

He said, however, that DWP will not appeal the judge’s ruling and will pay all the fines, including those levied against Binninger and Davison.