OXNARD : Residents Can’t Sue Over Toxins Injuries

Oxnard Dunes residents cannot claim that they were physically injured by the chemicals buried in the land beneath their homes, a Ventura County Superior Court judge has ruled.

The 175 residents have sued the former landowners, alleging that oil wastes, pesticides, cyanide and solvents buried beneath the Oxnard subdivision caused “a variety of maladies, particularly skin diseases and chronic headaches,” said Fred Rucker, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

Judge Melinda Johnson ruled last week that the residents have not produced enough evidence to prove that toxins buried in the area caused their illnesses.

Rucker said Johnson repeatedly raised the standards of evidence which he and plaintiffs’ lawyer Conrad Tuohey had to follow for the court to allow the claims of physical injury to go to trial.

“With due respect to Judge Johnson, who I think is a very bright jurist, I think it’s an outrageous and unfair ruling,” Rucker said.

“She kept creating a moving target and I think, in fairness to her, her ostensible motive was to shorten the trial.”

Rucker said a toxicologist and doctors were prepared to testify that the chemicals caused the ailments.

Paul Dolan, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, said Johnson’s ruling contradicted the 1988 decision by then-Superior Court Judge Kenneth Yegan, who was overseeing the 5-year-old case.

Yegan ruled that the plaintiffs did have enough evidence to claim physical injury in the suit, Dolan said.

A jury verdict supporting the plaintiffs’ claim of physical injury could have been worth several million dollars, Rucker said.

But the plaintiffs still are allowed to claim damages for emotional distress and devaluation of their property, he said.

The state Department of Health Services completed five years of testing in November, concluding that the dump poses no health risk.

The case is scheduled to go to trial Aug. 5.