Hyperion Work Damaged Nearby House, Suit Alleges

A former South Bay police chief is suing the city of Los Angeles, claiming that vibration from construction work at the Hyperion sewage plant has damaged his nearby El Segundo home.

Jay Stroh, police chief of El Segundo from 1966 to 1970 and of Inglewood from 1971 to 1981, says earthmoving and pile driving on plant property caused cracking in his floor, driveway and patio, among other places.

In his suit, Stroh, now the director of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, claims that the cracks first appeared in November of last year, during a huge earth excavation project at Hyperion.

“You could see the chandelier and ceiling fans moving, and there was no earthquake,” Stroh said. Pointing out that he and his wife, Jackie, have lived in their Hillcrest Avenue home for more than 20 years, he said, “the damage wasn’t there before they started doing it, and it’s there now.”

The city rejects the claims contained in the Torrance Superior Court suit filed this month, which also names Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., the insurer of the Stroh’s home.

Deputy City Atty. Chris Westhoff said that city-paid soil experts took measurements in the Hillcrest Avenue area and determined that the vibrations were not strong enough to cause structural damage. If there was cracking at the Strohs’ house, he said, it is because the building sits on unstable land.

“There’s no way our construction did this,” Westhoff said. “They are on an uncompacted, sandy and (sloping) soil which is cut way too steep. It would creep regardless of what we did at Hyperion.”

At issue are the effects of massive excavations that form part of a $600-million project to rebuild Hyperion, a city of Los Angeles sewage treatment plant in Playa Del Rey between El Segundo and Dockweiler Beach.

According to Westhoff, about 20 El Segundo homeowners have filed claims alleging property damage as a result of the work. He said the city has settled more than a dozen of the claims at a total cost of about $50,000 and is settling several more, using a $2-million fund set aside for the purpose.

Stroh’s is the first claim to progress to a lawsuit. The city rejected his claim in May, but Westhoff would not rule out a settlement in the case.

“I’d be silly to turn down a settlement that I believe is reasonable,” he said.

Westhoff said the city considers the settlements cost-saving steps aimed at avoiding expensive court battles and rejects the view that, by settling, the city might be admitting that its sewage project has caused property damage.

Brent Ayscough, Stroh’s attorney, acknowledged that he has no scientific evidence of a link between the construction work at Hyperion and the cracking in his client’s home. But he said he plans to hire an expert to study the matter and is confident that the findings will support Stroh.

“Houses don’t sit someplace for 20 years and then all of a sudden, in a matter of a few months, they start to crack,” he said. “With the relative suddenness of it all, it just seems highly unlikely that there’s no connection” between the Hyperion work and the cracking.

Westhoff challenged Ayscough to provide proof: “If they are able to demonstrate through their experts that our experts don’t know what they’re talking about, then fine.”