HUNTINGTON BEACH : Law Firm Will Ask Verdict Be Set Aside

The state’s largest law firm will ask a Superior Court judge to set aside a verdict by an Orange County jury that awarded $70,000 to a former Huntington Beach homeowner who accused the firm of malicious prosecution, a lawyer for the firm, Robert W. Loewen, said Thursday.

The jury ruled Wednesday that the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher acted with malice when it filed a defamation lawsuit on behalf of its client, S&S; Construction Co., against Clifford Mortensen, 47, formerly of Huntington Beach.

Even though the jury awarded the homeowner $70,000 for emotional distress, Loewen said the jury did not order the law firm to pay punitive damages, thus vindicating the firm. “He was only awarded $70,000, and here is a guy who a year ago made a formal demand for $15 million,” Loewen said.

But Mortensen’s attorney, John Taylor, said the jury found “that the bullying, threatening tactics that they used against my client were improper. It’s Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s skewed vision of the world that they think they got away with that.”

The jury verdict this week was the latest in a 13-year feud between the homeowner and the home builder over the faulty construction of Mortensen’s Huntington Beach home.

In an effort to satisfy Mortensen’s complaints about a leaky roof, S&S; gave the homeowner a settlement in 1978 on the condition that Mortensen not disclose the terms of the agreement, Loewen said.

But instead, Mortensen, who had already begun contacting other homeowners in an effort to file a class-action lawsuit against the home builder, continued speaking publicly about the construction flaws in his home.

Acting on the advice of its lawyers at the law firm, the home builder sued Mortensen in 1979 for defamation, intentional interference of business and civil extortion. The lawsuit was dismissed in 1984.

After winning an additional $125,000 court judgment from S&S; in 1984 for respiratory problems caused by mold that grew out of roof leaks in the home, Mortensen sued the construction firm, the law firm and their representatives for malicious prosecution.

The jury dismissed the allegations against the construction firm but ruled against the law firm and Wesley Howell Jr., a partner in the firm.