Landslide Trial Moves Ahead at a Snail’s Pace

The trial in the lawsuit filed by seven elderly Big Rock Mesa homeowners was intended to move swiftly. Jury selection was expected to take a few days. By today, the trial was expected to be well under way.

But when it comes to speed, the Big Rock case has never met expectations.

Nearly two weeks after jury selection began in the tangled legal case over who is to blame for one of the worst landslides in state history, attorneys were still struggling to pick a jury panel. The case of the Malibu plaintiffs who are over 70 years old was separated from a mega-trial involving 250 other Big Rock homeowners to ensure them a simpler, and therefore quicker, trial.

Yet where speed was sought, inertia has set in.

250 Homes Damaged

It has taken 5 years just to get to trial. The Big Rock homeowners are suing Los Angeles County and several other government agencies for approving development of Big Rock Mesa with seepage pits and horizontal drains rather than sewers. They claim that the county’s action contributed to a rise in ground water that triggered a massive landslide, destroying or damaging about 250 homes. The county, in turn, says the homeowners are to blame for the slide because they failed to drain water from the mesa.

The judge in the case, visibly frustrated at the pace of the trial, makes sarcastic remarks daily about the sluggish jury selection process. Anxious attorneys shake their heads in disbelief at some of the questions their counterparts put to prospective jurors. And the 40 potential panelists awaiting the call to sit on the jury fight sleep during the arduous questioning process in the quiet confines of Department 4 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Some prospective jurors are peppered with queries for nearly three hours. Usually there is time to call only two of them in a day.

“It has been an impossibly slow jury selection,” said Richard Norton, one of the homeowners’ attorneys. “In fact, it’s stultifying. It’s paralyzing. It’s ridiculous.”

At times, it also seems surreal. Jurors have been questioned about everything from their views on Santa Monica politics to their feelings about Malibu residents in general. They have been asked whether they drink Los Angeles’ tap water (not many do) and whether they favor development along the coast (not many care). David Casselman, one of the attorneys representing Los Angeles County, plays a word association game with some perspective jurors. One of the phrases is septic tank.

“You may have noticed a lot of repetition in the questions you’re asked, ha, ha,” Superior Court Judge Henry P. Nelson instructed one prospective panelist. “But a juror has to be patient. There will be a lot of statements made by the lawyers next year--when we finish selecting this jury.

“Your job, I know I’ve said this before, is to dig into this case. But now we’re going to take a break so that you can go to the bathroom and splash some water on your face so you can wake up.”

Attorneys in the case have backed away from all predictions about when the actual trial may start. The delay also raises questions about the scheduled Feb. 15 starting date for the mega-trial in Los Angeles, since the same attorneys will be involved in that trial.

The larger trial is expected to be one of the longest civil trials in the nation, lasting 2 to 5 years.

With 75 witnesses scheduled to testify in the case involving the elderly Big Rock homeowners, it seems unlikely that this trial could be completed before the start of the larger one.

For the homeowners, who have claimed that the only winners in the case will be the attorneys, the sluggishness of the current trial serves as a bad omen for the coming one. Only six attorneys are in the case involving the elderly plaintiffs. About 275 attorneys will be involved in the larger trial. And 36 jurors must be selected to ensure that a pool of 12 will be on hand throughout the entire trial.

“All I know is that the trial couldn’t possibly take any longer than it has,” said Ken Chiate, one of the homeowners’ attorneys. “This is awful.”

Casselman, perhaps feeling the frustration evidenced by one juror after more than two hours of questioning, decided to gauge her real feeling about the time-consuming process.

“Would you like to be on this case?” Casselman asked. “I mean, do you have any burning desire to get off of this case?”

The woman paused only a second. “Oh, if you let me go, I’ll go.”