DANA POINT : Homeowners Win Right to Sue Builder

An appellate court has ruled in favor of 11 Dana Point property owners who claim that a developer deceived them by promising that 71 new homes would not block their valley and ocean views.

The ruling, handed down Dec. 31 by the state’s 4th District Court of Appeal with a 2-1 vote, says the landowners have the right to sue Southwest Diversified Co. of San Francisco, builder of the Village at Dana Point.

It overturns a ruling in Orange County Superior Court, which dismissed the suit, saying it failed to prove that Southwest had deceived the homeowners.

Attorney Darryl J. Paul, who is representing the landowners, said he hopes to bring the case to trial by next summer and will ask for $10 million in damages.

“It was a significant victory,” Paul said of the appellate ruling. His suit maintains that the builder deflected local opposition to the 25-acre project by making promises it had no intention of keeping. One of those promises was to not interfere with the views of other homes on the hillside overlooking Capistrano Valley, the ocean and Dana Point Harbor.

“Then they went ahead and built the project as they wished and, in one case, built a virtual mountain of dirt obstructing the views of the people across the street,” Paul said.

Paul R. Hamilton, the attorney for the developer, said the neighbors endorsed the project when it was approved by the county in 1988, before Dana Point’s incorporation. He said he will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

Hamilton added that the project was designed to preserve some views but not all.

“It was never represented that the views would be preserved intact,” Hamilton said. “Those homeowners (across the street) knew that and said so at a public meeting.”

One of those homeowners, however, Clyde Lacher, a cement finisher, said he was initially against the project until representatives of the developer convinced him that it would be beneficial for the neighborhood. Lacher, who has lived at the intersection of Calle La Primavera and La Cresta Drive for 28 years, lost his ocean view when the Village at Dana Point was constructed.

“Now all I see is a mountain,” Lacher said. “The main thrust of this thing is that I put my trust in them and they didn’t do what they said. When people look you in the eye and tell you something, I believe it.”