Muffler Shop Owner Wins Reprieve

The owner of a Torrance muffler shop has staved off the city’s wrecking crews for at least one more month.

Walter J. (Jake) Egan won a reprieve last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, when Judge William Huss continued a hearing on the subject until May 14.

The city is trying to take possession of Aable Muffler Shop, a small business Egan owns near American Honda Motor Co. headquarters in eastern Torrance.

The city obtained a court order giving it authority to take possession of the land this week under eminent domain procedures. But Egan’s lawyer argued successfully in court last Friday that the city had not properly notified a smog inspector who rents space in Egan’s shop.

City officials say the shop must be demolished to make way for the widening of Torrance Boulevard between Western and Cabrillo avenues. Egan contends that the city’s real motivation is to clear the land in front of Honda’s $225-million development.

“Their whole case is built on fabrication,” Egan said this week. “There’s no dangerous curve there. . . . The city of Torrance is acting as an agent for a foreign investor.”