Homeowners Vote to Pay $123,000 in Suit
Members of a Thousand Oaks homeowners association agreed Friday to pay a developer $123,000 to settle a lawsuit in which a federal judge awarded the builder $688,000 in damages.
About 76%, or 181 of the 237 members of the Westlake North Property Owners Assn. who voted, approved settlement with the Lang Ranch Co., one of two developers of the 2,500-acre Lang Ranch. Twenty-seven members opposed the settlement, and 29 abstained. Fifty-seven percent of the association’s 413 members participated in the election.
The settlement followed months of negotiations with Lang Ranch Co. and ended homeowners’ fears that the association’s assets, including a community center on an acre of land, would be seized. But it alarmed some slow-growth activists who said it would discourage homeowners from challenging developers in court.
“It’s regrettable that the homeowners have been so cowed by the developers,” said Gerald A. Silver, director of the Alliance to Control Development in California, a coalition of 1,200 homeowner groups. “What’ll happen is developers will be encouraged to go after other homeowners who sue them for legitimate reasons.”
‘Best Solution’
Rick Dixon, president of the Westlake North group, said the vote “is not a statement about the validity of the developer’s position or of the monetary sanctions the judge imposed. It’s just the best solution to a bad situation.”
The damages, believed to be among the highest ever imposed on a homeowner group, were awarded in February by U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian Jr., who dismissed a suit filed by the association against a 2,257-unit housing project. Saying the suit was frivolous and cost the developers unnecessary legal fees and other costs, Tevrizian ordered the association and its attorneys to pay $735,000 to Lang Ranch Co. and Anden Group, the other developer.
The five directors of the homeowner association voted two weeks ago to settle the case instead of pursuing it in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The election was conducted at a meeting that began Thursday and ended early Friday at the association’s community center on Westlake Boulevard at Valley Spring Drive.
Dixon said the association will pay the $123,000 over five years by dipping into its general fund or by voting to impose a special assessment on members. He declined to reveal how much money is in the group’s general fund or whether members can resign to escape an assessment.
Close to Agreement
Dixon said the homeowners are “very close” to reaching agreement with Anden Group, which was awarded $47,000 in damages.
Members of the association said the group owes its attorneys between $35,000 and $40,000 in fees.
Paul Hamilton, an attorney for Lang Ranch Co., said the firm will still hold Shelby Moore and Teresa Hooks, the association’s attorneys, liable for the remaining $565,000 in damages.
Moore said he and Hooks have appealed the damages rather than negotiate a settlement because they are confident that they will win.
The state attorney general’s office will file a brief in support of Moore and Hooks because it is concerned about the chilling effect that the damages would have on other homeowners and their attorneys, Assistant Atty. Gen. Antonette Cordero said. She said her office had also planned to support the association if it had pursued the case. She declined to comment on the settlement.
