OXNARD DUNES : Appeal to Be Heard in Toxic-Waste Suit

An appeal court will decide whether 170 property owners and renters in the Oxnard Dunes subdivision are allowed to claim that toxic wastes beneath their homes injured their health.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Melinda A. Johnson, who is presiding over a suit filed by the residents, said Monday that she will not reverse her ruling that bars them from claiming personal injury when the case goes to trial.

Johnson made the ruling July 2, saying the plaintiffs in the $3.5-billion suit had not shown that they suffered such injuries from the wastes. She said she would allow them to claim emotional distress and property damage.

Some of the plaintiffs appealed to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, which directed Johnson to reverse her ruling or the appeal court would hold a hearing on the matter. With her refusal to reverse the ruling, attorneys on both sides will argue the issue before the appeal court Nov. 7.

The dispute means that the Dunes lawsuit, which was filed in January, 1987, and had been set to go to trial this month, probably will not be heard by a jury until next year.

“It’s really a procedural issue,” Johnson said Monday. She said the Dunes case has been designated as “complex litigation” under a state law that gives the trial judge broad powers to decide how the case proceeds. The issue is whether Johnson exceeded those powers in forbidding the personal injury claims.

The judge said the complex-litigation law is vague. “This will give us some parameters,” she said.

If she is overruled, Johnson said, the defendants will probably try to eliminate personal injury claims through other legal maneuvers. The defendants include former owners of the land, companies that dumped on it as well as the city of Oxnard, which approved the residential subdivision.