Ruling on Big Rock Mesa Case Sets the Stage for Huge Trial

A Superior Court judge Friday rejected a motion by Los Angeles County to dismiss the Big Rock Mesa landslide case, expected to be one of the biggest and longest civil trials in the nation.

The decision by Judge Maurice Hogan Jr. means that the upcoming mega-trial, which pits about 250 Malibu homeowners and their insurance companies against the county and several other government agencies, will go on as scheduled Feb. 15 in Los Angeles.

William Vaughn, one of the attorneys representing the county, argued that several of the homeowners’ lawyers had agreed previously to make one of the lawsuits a test case and that a decision in that case would be binding on all.

Awarded $2 Million

In that case, involving homeowners Margaret and August Hansch, the couple was awarded more than $2 million in 1985.

The state Court of Appeal overturned the judgment in June, and the state Supreme Court upheld the appeals court decision last month. However, as Hogan pointed out, the Supreme Court justices ruled that the case would not be binding on other cases involving Big Rock Mesa homeowners.

“I’ve looked at the files, and I can’t find anything that says the Hansch case was a test case,” Hogan said in making his ruling. “Personally, I wish I could find a reason to change my ruling. I’m not the happiest person to get involved in a case with 200-something lawyers.”

Hogan has ordered the construction of the largest courtroom in the United States to handle the trial, which is expected to last between two and five years.

More than 275 attorneys will be involved in the case, which will be held in a 24,000-square-foot courtroom being built inside the Hollywood Palladium.

The homeowners, who are seeking more than $200 million in damages, are suing the county for approving development of the hillside area above Pacific Coast Highway with seepage pits and drains rather than sewers. They claim that the county’s action contributed to a rise in ground water, which triggered the landslide on Big Rock Mesa in 1983. The slide destroyed or damaged 250 homes and cracked tennis courts, roads and driveways in the affluent neighborhood.

The county, in turn, filed more than 300 countersuits against past and present homeowners, claiming that they are responsible for the landslide because they failed to drain water from the mesa and poured water into the hillside. The county has spent nearly $7 million so far defending the case.