Justices Overturn Award for Damage From Malibu Slide

A state Court of Appeal on Tuesday overturned a nearly $3-million judgment against Los Angeles County in a test case that could have made taxpayers liable for $500 million in damage to 230 Malibu homes in the massive 1983 Big Rock Mesa landslide.

Margaret and August Hansch, whose dream home was reduced to rubble in the slide, had won the award in 1985 from Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jack T. Ryburn.

The trial judge said the county was responsible for damages because officials had approved development of the mesa with seepage pits and horizontal drains rather than sewers, which contributed to a rise in ground water triggering the landslide.

Unanimous Ruling

But Justices Lester William Roth, Lynn D. Compton and Morio Fukuto of the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously Tuesday, in an excoriating 50-page opinion, that mere approval of plans does not make government agencies responsible for private developments.

“It should not be necessary to dwell at length on the horrendous implications of imposing public liability without fault for landslides (and presumably other disasters) not associated with any public conduct other than approval of private developers’ subdivision and construction plans,” the justices stated. “The nature of the public’s participation in such development does not warrant such liability, and its scale would be Brobdingnagian.

“The government cannot be held liable for failing to require the installation of sewers which studies showed were unnecessary. Nor is it (the government) the guarantor of the work of every developer, builder, and consulting geologist.”

The appellate panel further overruled Ryburn by deciding that the Hansches must pay court costs estimated at more than $100,000 to the county and three government defendants Ryburn absolved from liability--Los Angeles County Waterworks District No. 29, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and the California Department of Transportation.

Waterworks, flood control and state lawyers had presented bills totaling $94,344 for expert wit nesses and other court costs. William W. Vaughn of O’Melveny & Myers, private attorneys hired to defend the county, said he could not yet estimate the county’s costs.

Richard Norton, attorney for the Hansch couple, characterizing the opinion as “a major setback,” said he will appeal to the state Supreme Court and, if necessary, to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The (appellate) justices do not show an understanding of the constitutional requirement to compensate property owners for damage to private property caused by government conduct . . . ,” Norton said. “A year ago the U.S. Supreme Court said California courts were not applying this requirement.”

After the landslide destroyed 30 homes and damaged 200 more, homeowners filed 230 lawsuits. Vaughn and Norton said all suits against county defendants have been held in abeyance pending the Hansch appeal. A trial-setting conference is scheduled for those cases Monday.

Suits involving 12 homes were tried against the state over damage caused by Caltrans’ cutting through the area for highways. After the state was found liable, attorneys negotiated a $25-million settlement to be shared by all homeowners who sued Caltrans.

Vaughn called Tuesday’s decision “a complete and total victory for the county.” He said the ruling not only proved that government cannot be held liable for damages for merely approving plans for private development but that the decision also establishes that “bringing this kind of case is not cost free.”

“The increasing social tendency to blame the government for events which are largely the result of abandonment of individual responsibility is not to be encouraged . . .,” the appellate justices chided. “That the eventual catastrophe (landslide) should be followed by an effort to shift the loss to the public is unsurprising but deplorable.”

Ryburn had awarded the Hansches $2,075,000 for the value of their home, plus $663,460 in attorney fees, costs and interest from the time of the landslide until trial’s end. The appellate ruling gives them nothing.

The Hansches had also sought additional damages for “emotional trauma . . . as they watched the dream of their lifetimes and the labor of years crumble about them.” The Court of Appeal upheld Ryburn’s denial of that claim.

The slide involved more than 150 acres and continued for about two years. It moved homes off foundations, cracked walls, floors and ceilings and buckled utility mains.