Longest Trial in the History of Torrance Winds Down

They sang happy birthday Thursday morning to a juror in Judge Frank Baffa’s courtroom.

In about six weeks, the judge, jurors and as many as 10 lawyers will be able to sing it again for the one-year anniversary of the longest trial in the history of the Torrance Superior Court.

The Rolling Hills Flying Triangle landslide case, which began Jan. 6 in Department B, finally entered closing arguments last week.

Owners of 21 hillside properties are seeking $31 million in damages from the California Water Service Co. and the Rolling Hills Community Assn. for allegedly causing a landslide that destroyed or damaged as many as 30 homes.

An Endurance Test

The fatherly Baffa has attempted to lighten the burden of the long trial by accommodating the schedules of jurors, lawyers and courtroom personnel, and with small touches such as birthday songs. Still, the case has been an endurance test for participants, expensive for taxpayers and upsetting to the already overloaded courthouse schedule.

And no one is saying what it has cost the litigants.

The case could run an additional three months if jurors decide for the plaintiffs, Baffa said, because then lawyers would make a new round of arguments on damages.

About $233,000 has been spent thus far on the salaries of courtroom staff, jurors’ fees and other expenses, based on the average daily expense for civil cases in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Baffa, 60, has been holed up in his third-floor court with little time for other matters.

“Obviously, with one judge trying a case of that duration, it means one less judge for cases of the normal length,” said Robert Mallano, supervisor of the 10 judges at the courthouse. “Other cases just have to wait longer (to come to trial). In 11 months he might have been able to try, say, 48 other cases.”

Mallano said he is not sure how long other trials have been delayed.

Shifted to Criminal Cases

The backlog became particularly acute from July 15 to Oct. 15, when Frank S. Zolin, executive director of the Superior Court system, ordered administrative changes to reduce the county’s criminal cases backlog. Torrance was effectively reduced from four to one civil judge because two judges handling civil cases were shifted to criminal cases; Baffa remained with the Flying Triangle case.

The veteran judge takes good-natured ribbing from his colleagues. Said Baffa: “They say, ‘You’re practically in semi-retirement; do you think you can stretch this case out any longer?’ ”

Other signs of the long siege are visible all around Department B.

Nearly 800 exhibits have piled so high that the wood-paneled courtroom looks more like a geologist’s attic. Four-foot lengths of corrugated pipe rest in an aisle and behind the lawyers’ table. Piles of charts, maps and photographs line the front of the jury box, and elaborate cardboard relief maps fill what used to be spectator seats. Giant blowup photos of the landslide dominate the courtroom walls.

The exhibits have so clogged the court that witnesses have difficulty getting to the witness stand.

At Least 14,000 Pages

Court reporter Ronald Vernon estimated that the trial transcript would be about 14,000 pages if it were typed this week, not including thousands of pages of depositions.

One of Baffa’s chief concerns has been shepherding jurors through the case.

Four of the 12 original members have been dismissed after complaining of hardships involving their work, Baffa said. That has left the panel with only two of its original six alternates to ensure that the case can be completed with the standard complement of 12 jurors.

“We don’t want to lose any more jurors if I can help it,” Baffa said.

The judge said he has become like a “mother hen,”

scheduling around dental appointments, granting a monthlong August recess for vacations and breaking court two hours early during much of the fall for a juror who must tend to his duties as a football coach at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.

The case has also been delayed twice, for a total of seven days, for a juror who suffered chest pains in the courtroom. The man’s health improved after both incidents, and he returned, determined to finish the case.

Such delays for jurors and lawyers, as well as months of prolonged scientific testimony, have contributed to the record-setting length of the trial.

Determined to Finish

Far from feeling trapped, however, the 14 remaining jurors are apparently determined to see the case to its conclusion.

Former juror Scott Dandoy, 26, said he regrets that he was forced to leave the case in July to remain eligible for a promotion with the Torrance Street Department.

“I still go back and visit and talk to the lawyers,” Dandoy said this week. “I go back every chance I get to sit and watch. I really would have liked to go to the end with it.”

Dandoy said he and most of the other jurors enjoyed their time together and were fascinated by the complex scientific discussion about the origins of the slide. Experts have spent hours exploring the finer points of swales, reasserted buttresses and failed slopes.

“It was like taking a class in geology,” Dandoy said. “I was very, very interested.”

There have been hardships for lawyers, though, some of whom began taking the first depositions in the case five years ago.

“Anytime a lawyer is absent for an extended period, his practice is substantially affected,” said David Rudy, a San Francisco attorney who represents one homeowner. “You’re unable to get back to other clients or to talk to prospective new clients. I’ve basically had to turn my entire caseload over to various associates.”

He also feels the strain at home, where four small children ask why their father spends so much time away. “My wife has basically been a single parent for a year,” Rudy said. “And that’s tough.”

Monday was the beginning of the end for the Flying Triangle case, as attorney Major Langer made final arguments for most of the homeowners.

Langer told jurors that the water company and community association were more worried about their finances than about preventing a landslide in the Flying Triangle section of Rolling Hills. The slide was triggered in 1979, according to Langer, after the water company and community association permitted excess water to flow onto the slope.

He blamed California Water for breaks in its pipes and the community association for failing to direct storm water away from the Flying Triangle and not acting to halt the slide once it had begun.

Langer’s argument lasted the entire week and will be taken up by other plaintiffs’ attorneys Monday.

Defense lawyers are to close next week. They are expected to argue that the slide was unavoidable, an act of nature. The Flying Triangle area is part of an ancient slide plane that has moved at least 50 times since the Palos Verdes Peninsula was formed, they say.

Baffa hopes that the jury will reach a verdict about one month from now. If it finds the homeowners association and water company liable, the hardy 14 will return after a brief holiday recess to assess damages.

That phase of the trial might not end until February, Baffa said.

A RECORD-SETTING TRIAL The Rolling Hills Flying Triangle landslide case:

LITIGANTS: Owners of 21 hillside properties are suing the Rolling Hills Community Assn. and the California Water Service Co. for $31 million.

HISTORY: A hillside in the Flying Triangle section of Rolling Hills began to give way in late 1979. The slide eventually spread to 88 acres. The first suit was filed in 1981. As many as 30 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Numerous suits were consolidated for trial, which opened at the Torrance Superior Court Jan. 6, 1987.

AT ISSUE: Homeowners’ claims that a faulty drainage system maintained by the community association contributed to the landslide, as did leaking water company pipes. The community association and water company blame the slide on unavoidable movement of the earth along ancient slide planes.

TRIAL COST: An estimated $233,000 in taxpayer money has been spent, mostly to pay jurors and the salaries of courtroom personnel. Neither side will discuss its legal expenses.