Family of Boy Killed by Shell Settles Suit

The family of an 8-year-old boy who was killed when a World War II-era artillery shell exploded in a Tierrasanta canyon in 1983 has reached a tentative settlement with the City of San Diego and three private firms that could net family members $21 million over their lifetimes, their lawyer said Thursday.

The terms of the proposed settlement have not been disclosed, but will be presented to the City Council at a closed meeting Tuesday morning, according to Ron Johnson, a senior chief deputy city attorney.

Vincent Bartolotta, a lawyer for the family of Corey Alden Peake, one of two 8-year-olds killed in the 1983 accident, said the tentative agreement calls for a structured settlement to be paid by the city, two developers and a civil engineering firm. It is up to the defendants to decide who is liable for what share of the settlement, Bartolotta said.

Typically, a structured settlement involves the creation of an annuity or trust fund from which payments are made over a number of years, rather than an immediate lump sum payment.

A lawsuit filed by the family of Matthew Smith, the other child killed in the explosion, is scheduled to go to trial March 1.

Found While Playing ‘Fort’

The boys were among six children who found the 37-millimeter anti-tank shell in December, 1983, while playing “fort” in a canyon in the community, built on the site of an abandoned artillery range.

They examined the shell, tossed it in the bushes, retrieved it for another look, and banged it on a rock. The shell exploded, instantly killing the two 8-year-olds and injuring Corey Peake’s 12-year-old brother, Carl.

Bartolotta said one of the major contentions in the lawsuit was that the accident contributed to the death of the Peake boys’ father, who died of cancer one month later. He had been in remission, but suffered a relapse caused by the emotional strain of the incident, Bartolotta said, adding: “It was just too much for him.”

“Here was a mother left with one injured son,” Bartolotta said. “And the major wage earner in this family is deceased. . . . Our major intention from the plaintiff’s point of view is that this family doesn’t have to relive this tragedy.”

The boys’ mother, Joanne Peake, and her three children, who are now elementary school and high school age, will receive the money over their lifetimes, Bartolotta said.

In addition to the city, the defendants in the suit are Christiana Companies Inc. and Ponderosa Homes, real estate developers in the Tierrasanta area, and VTN Southwest Inc., a civil engineering firm that did survey work there.

Lawyers for Christiana and VTN said they would not comment on the lawsuit. Attempts to reach lawyers for Ponderosa were unsuccessful.

Bartolotta said a federal judge has ruled that the Navy is immune from prosecution in relation to the incident.

Tierrasanta, a 2,600-acre community of condominiums and single-family homes, was built in the 1970s in an area that had been an artillery range for the 43-square-mile Marine Corps Camp Elliott during World War II. Later, the land was transferred to the Navy and eventually was bought by Christiana, which deeded 800 of the 2,600 acres to the city as open space.

In the uproar that followed the deaths of the boys in 1983, a Navy ordnance team swept the area and found more than 100 rounds of ammunition, most of it live. Although military ordnance teams swept the area in the 1960s and again in 1973, the canyons remained peppered with shells.

As recently as last month, a World War II artillery shell was found in Tierrasanta by a construction worker. A Navy official said sweeps of the area in the past four years have turned up other such shells and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning a complete sweep of the area.