Homeowners Sue Over Sinking Houses Built on Old Garbage Dump : Simi Valley: The residents say trash under the lots is decomposing, causing the foundations to shift and crack.
Patricia and Doyle Boatwright looked forward to the day they could sell their Simi Valley house and retire to Oklahoma, where they could be near their children and other family members.
But whether they will be able to recoup their investment and realize their dream will depend on a judge and jury.
The Boatwrights and the owners of six other Simi Valley homes are suing Larwin-Southern California Inc. and its subcontractors for $1.4 million plus an unspecified amount in punitive damages for allegedly failing to disclose to them that their houses in the 1100 block of North Currier Avenue were built atop a garbage dump. The homeowners contend that trash under their houses was never removed and over the years has decomposed, resulting in shifting and sinking foundations that have caused major structural damage.
The homeowners allege that Larwin knew about the dump but deliberately concealed the information from home buyers. Larwin attorneys, however, said the developer had hired subcontractors to remove the debris and was convinced that this had been done when it began building the 75-house tract in 1970.
In addition to Larwin, which is based in Los Angeles, the suit names soil consultants Robert Stone and Associates Inc., based in Woodland Hills; grading contractor C.A. Rasmussen Inc. of Simi Valley; the defunct engineering firm of Jensen-Thompson Associates Inc., formerly based in Ventura; the city of Simi Valley and the Simi Valley Unified School District.
After years of delays and several attempts to settle the matter out of court, the case has finally been scheduled for trial in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 1986, about a year after structural problems at the houses began to appear, said Mark Herskovitz, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. Besides the Boatwrights, the plaintiffs include Albert and Nina Obuch; Ronald and Linda Hoglund; Robert and Betty McBride; Bahauddin and Kamellah Durrani; Boris and Elaine Pribich; and Sheldon Ksionzky.
Herskovitz said the area where the houses were built used to be a ravine, which nearby farmers used as a dumping ground. He said a soil consultant hired by the homeowners has found metal pipe, bricks, plastic, glass bottles, aluminum cans, barbed wire and various farm implements buried 10 to 15 feet below each of the homes.
“Anything the farmers had no use for, they dumped in the ravine,” Herskovitz said, gesturing toward a wheelbarrow piled high with debris that had recently been dug up in the Boatwrights’ back yard.
Herskovitz said the developer was required by law to have all the trash removed before starting to build. Instead, he said, the trash was covered with a thin layer of topsoil on which the houses were then built.
But Ronald White, a Larwin attorney, said the developer’s original soil and grading consultant said he had removed the trash before construction. “All the reports reflect that they did everything to professional standards and conduct,” White said. “The records show that they did the work, and we relied on that.”
Attorneys for the soil and grading consultants did not return phone calls.
White acknowledged that the foundations of the houses are deteriorating and that trash apparently has been found under each of the plaintiffs’ dwellings.
“There’s no denying that the homes are suffering distress,” he said. “But I strongly disagree with the characterization that there was some kind of intentional cover-up. There was no fraud. No one intentionally concealed the debris.”
White said the developer has offered to give the homeowners enough money--a total of $350,000--to repair their houses, but they have declined to accept the payment.
“That’s insulting,” Patricia Boatwright said of the developer’s offer. “That is totally unacceptable.”
Herskovitz and his clients said the houses are beyond repair and need to be rebuilt. But first, they said, the houses need to be razed and the trash underneath excavated.
Herskovitz said debris from the dump is apparently concentrated in one area of the neighborhood, and that is why only a few houses along North Currier Avenue have been affected. The lawsuit accuses the city and the Simi Valley Unified School District of contributing to the subsidence of the houses by continuing to allow the use of a drainage ditch that runs along the west end of nearby Madera Elementary School. The suit says runoff from the ditch empties into an open field directly behind the houses.
Herskovitz said water from the ditch has accelerated decomposition of the debris under the dwellings, thereby contributing to their shifting and sinking foundations.
Korman Ellis, an attorney for the school district, said that because the school and the drainage channel were there long before the houses were built, the plaintiffs’ argument has little merit.
“That’s like building your home next to a sewer or an airport, then complaining that it stinks or it’s too noisy,” he said.
Michael Dilando, another attorney for the homeowners, said the city and school district are still liable because they have refused to rechannel the water from the drainage ditch despite the homeowners’ complaint. Patricia Boatwright said she and her husband bought their two-story, six-bedroom house in the clean, well-tended middle-class subdivision in 1984 for $137,500.
“At the time we bought the house, it was appraised at $144,000, so we thought we were getting a bargain,” she said.
About a year after the couple moved in, dozens of hairline cracks on walls and ceilings throughout the house began to appear, she said. Since then, the cracks have led to the separation of walls, cracked slabs and sloping floors. Damage in most of the houses is similar, with some cracks measuring more than an inch across.
Boatwright, 55, said she and her husband, who is 64, have had to delay their plans to move to Oklahoma. She said her husband, an engineering manager at Litton Industries in Moorpark, will keep working until the case with Larwin is settled.
She said the couple do not want to think what will happen if they lose the lawsuit.
“I don’t have an answer,” she said, trying to hold back tears. “We don’t have time to recover from this. If we were in our 40s or 30s, it would be different. But my husband can’t continue to work forever.’
“You work all your life, and you got all you money tied up in your house . . . it’s tough to lose it,” Doyle Boatwright said. “It’s tough at 64.”
The couple said they feel trapped because they cannot even borrow against their house, much less rent it or sell it. They are also concerned about their safety and what effect an earthquake might have on their house as it continues to deteriorate.
They said they hope the lawsuit will prevent the same thing from happening to others in the future.
“Unless you live in a situation like this, you can’t appreciate what it’s like,” Patricia Boatwright said. “We never want to see anyone go through this, ever.”
