Jury Rules City Liable for Flood Damage to 17 Homes

A San Diego Superior Court jury decided Monday that the city of San Diego is liable for damages to 17 South Bay families whose homes were flooded by rainwater that poured out of a city basin during a 1988 storm, and an attorney representing them said he will seek $10 million from the city.

“What we’re seeking is to have the city purchase their homes and pay for all the damage to all their property and compensate them reasonably for emotional distress they’ve suffered,” said attorney Gary Elster. That part of the case will get under way in three or four weeks, he said.

In the first part of the case, the families had argued that the city should be responsible for damages because it had leased the basin as a parking lot to a trucking company, Elster said.

When the severe storm hit on Feb. 2, 1988, water swept the trucks off the basin floor and truck parts clogged the basin drains and spillway, sending the overflow downhill toward the homes on Lauriston and Paxton drives, Elster said.

The city had contended that the storm was a freak against which it could not have guarded, Chief Deputy City Atty. Alan Sumption had said.

The jury verdict against the city in the two claims against it was unanimous, Elster said.

The jury released two other defendants from the case, finding that the Metropolitan Transit Development Board and the Arizona & Eastern Railway were not liable, Elster said. The transit board owns the two culverts adjoining the basin.