City Settles Last of Lawsuits From Home Flooding

The city of San Diego has settled the last of several lawsuits lodged by 16 families whose homes were flooded during a Feb. 2, 1988 rainstorm. The out-of-court settlement reached on Friday authorized a $550,000 payment to members of the Vasquez family, whose home at 1255 Lauriston Drive was flooded during the 1988 downpour.

In an out-of-court settlement reached last October, the city agreed to pay $9 million to 15 other families whose homes were flooded when rainwater poured out of a city catch basin.

That settlement followed a Superior Court jury’s determination that San Diego was liable for damages because the flooding was caused by a city-owned catch basin that was used as a parking lot. During the 1988 storm, debris from the parking lot clogged basin drains and the spillway, forcing the overflow to run down a hill into the residential neighborhood.

“We think this settles the whole 1988 flooding incident” as far as the city is concerned, said Deputy City Atty. Larry Renner. “We agreed to pay $550,000 to the five (family members), and, for that sum, the city will receive title to the property, the only parcel that the city doesn’t already own” in the area that flooded.

The city took title to 15 other properties on Lauriston, Paxton and Elrose drives in south San Diego as part of the settlement reached last October. The city paid about $2 million to take title to the 15 homes included in last October’s settlement. The rest of the $9-million settlement covered the loss of personal property and emotional distress suffered by the families and a business that had stored fabric in a garage that was flooded.

The city had contended that the storm was a freak occurrence that would happen only every 200 to 500 years. But the city lost the liability phase of a trial in Superior Court and decided to settle out of court rather than have a jury determine the financial penalty.