Case Comes Back Like a Bad Penny : Courts: Decision required a 50-50 split of money, leaving a 1-cent difference. It will cost $1,050 to resolve matter so that funds can be distributed.

If you’d given lawyer Casey Cole a penny for his thoughts Wednesday, you’d have heard an earful about his one-cent misfortune.

Cole spent half the day drafting legal papers that he hopes a judge will sign this morning ordering the Los Angeles Superior Court to accept a penny from him.

The one-cent payment is needed before a 4-year-old legal dispute over the ownership of a Palmdale house can be settled and profits from its sale can be disbursed among its former co-owners.

Four couples and a finance company emerged holding deeds of trust to the house after it was sold in a foreclosure sale by a mortgage company in the wake of an alleged investment scam.

A lawsuit was filed to determine who got the proceeds. Those involved decided to negotiate a settlement and quietly divvy up the money, which the mortgage company had deposited with the court.

The trouble is that the co-owners agreed on a payoff plan that called for specific amounts to be paid to two of the couples and to the finance company. The other two couples were to receive “50% of the remaining funds on deposit.”

The agreement was sealed in June with a court order signed by Judge Eric Younger.

But when the court finance officers sat down to count the cash, they discovered that the “even” split was a penny off.

And because Younger’s court order demanded a 50-50 split, officials refused to release any of the $30,832.81 to anybody.

The officials also refused to accept a penny from any of the three lawyers involved in the negotiations. They told them to get a new court order.

“It’s crazy, crazy,” said lawyer John A. Hendry of Pasadena.

“This is turning out to be a very expensive penny, that’s for sure,” said attorney Alan Berg of Encino.

It’s a $1,050 penny, in fact, said Cole of Pasadena.

That’s the cost of a new court order and special court hearing notices he drafted on Wednesday and had sent by messenger to everyone involved in the original lawsuit.

“I had to notify all parties that I’ll be in court at 8:30 in the morning,” said Cole--who hopes that Hendry and Berg chip in to defray some of his expense. He said he does not plan to bill his clients, Elaine and Alan Gediman of Newhall, for the penny.

Cole said the Palmdale property ownership dispute is an outgrowth of the alleged 1987 Missman-Kaplan & Associates real estate fraud case that may have involved 900 investors--many of them San Fernando Valley teachers.

Through his court clerk, Younger said Wednesday that he would have no comment on the one-cent case until he studies Cole’s petition.

But Mike McGee, a court finance office supervisor, said the cash drawer will be kept closed until Younger amends the June court order. He denied being penny wise and pound foolish.

“Judges know our hands are tied, even if it’s just a penny,” McGee said. “A penny sounds like it’s no big deal. But people can sue you over a penny.”

That explanation didn’t stop Laurie Joseph from putting in her two cents’ worth. The West Hills resident said she’s tired of waiting for her $1,164.40 share of the settlement.

“The whole system’s ridiculous,” she said.