Suit Settled Over Blocked Canyon View
A homeowner whose view of a canyon was blocked by a neighbor’s house addition agreed to a $115,000 settlement this week with the homeowners’ association that allowed the work.
Mary Leva said Thursday that although her five-year legal battle is over, the result is bittersweet.
“I lived under this umbrella for five long years,” said Leva, 67. “This home is all I have to offer my children.”
Leva’s suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, alleged that her pristine view of a nearby canyon was spoiled when a neighbor, who has since moved, built the addition. The addition shaded her property and her swimming pool and left her feeling boxed in, “like a prison,” Leva said.
She contended that the addition violated the association’s rules for the Cameo Highlands neighborhood. The group contended that the project conformed to its rules.
Although her suit sought $250,000--based on an appraisal of the addition’s financial damage to the value of her property in the 4700 block of Surrey Drive--Leva decided to accept the settlement, said her attorney, Daniel Robert Wildish.
“It was one of those situations where no amount of money would compensate her in her eyes,” Wildish said.
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