OXNARD, FILLMORE, SATICOY : Medical Clinic Seeks Lost Funds in Suit

A medical clinic with facilities in Oxnard, Fillmore and Saticoy has sued a New York-based brokerage house, alleging that the firm and one of its brokers lost thousands of dollars of the clinic’s money through unauthorized investments.

A spokeswoman for Shearson Lehman Bros. said Tuesday that it was working toward a resolution of the lawsuit and that the broker in question was no longer with the firm.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 20 in Ventura County Superior Court by Camarillo-based Clinicas del Camino Real, a nonprofit clinic for farm workers.

The allegations were made against Shearson’s Houston office and Harvey House, a broker in that office. They included breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation and breach of contract. The suit does not seek specific damages.

Robert Juarez, clinic executive director, said that about two years ago the clinic invested $390,000 with the brokerage firm through House.

Juarez and the clinic’s attorney, Howard M. Hoffman of Sacramento, said the clinic specifically instructed House and Shearson Lehman to invest the funds in short-term notes and certificates of deposit that matured in 30 to 180 days.

Instead, according to the lawsuit, House and Shearson Lehman placed the cash “into security positions that were highly vulnerable to market fluctuation,” including bonds.

The result, according to Juarez and Hoffman, was a $60,000 loss for the clinic.

“We tried to get our money out (of the brokerage account) in March of 1990, and found out that the money wasn’t all there,” Juarez said Tuesday.

The loss, he said, came at a critical time for the clinic because it was attempting to meet its payroll while constructing a $1.8-million headquarters in Oxnard, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

A spokeswoman for Shearson Lehman in New York, Sally Cates, said Tuesday that “the firm is working to resolve this situation to satisfy the interests of all parties.”

Cates also said that House “was laid off last spring.”