Numerous Derailment Claims Still Unresolved : Seacliff: Three months later, the railroad has settled 10%. Hundreds of residents, businesses and workers do not know if they will be compensated.

Within days of the Seacliff train derailment in July, Southern Pacific railroad set up a storefront claims office to help people dislocated by an accompanying toxic spill that closed the Ventura Freeway for nearly a week.

But three months after the crash, hundreds of residents, businesses and workers who filed claims still have gotten no word on whether they will be compensated for living expenses, lost sales or wages.

Southern Pacific has settled only 10% of 370 claims filed so far. The railroad maintains that it is not responsible for the 12-car wreck beneath a freeway overpass, because the broken axle that caused the accident was on a leased rail car.

“We don’t feel it was the company’s fault,” railroad spokesman Mike Furtney said.

Furtney said the railroad has paid claims of most homeowners whose property was close to the accident and who were forced to evacuate. But claims by others who say they have been financially harmed or inconvenienced are still under review, he said.

Expenses owed to local government agencies for emergency services and cleanup--estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars--have not been submitted by Ventura County or local cities, officials said. The county’s claim is expected to be filed this week.

The railroad’s failure to pay or reject the Seacliff claims--especially after soliciting them in the days after the derailment--has rankled many of those who meticulously outlined their expenses for the claims agents.

Seacliff resident Gina Hollywood said she is still awaiting payment for a $150 medical bill. On the advice of county health officials, she saw a doctor after inhaling the vapors of a neutralizing agent used in the cleanup.

“Their attitude when it first happened was, ‘We’ll be there for you and do everything we can,’ ” Hollywood said. “Their general attitude now seems to be, ‘It wasn’t our fault and nobody was hurt, so what’s the big deal?’ ”

The 440-gallon spill of toxic hydrazine, a probable carcinogen, prompted closure of a 10-mile stretch of freeway and evacuation of the 49-home Seacliff beach colony north of Ventura. As the cleanup slowly progressed, freeway traffic was detoured through coastal mountains, turning what had been a brief oceanside drive from Ventura to La Conchita into a two-lane, bumper-to-bumper trek of up to five hours.

For Southern Pacific, the Seacliff wreck was a public relations calamity, coming two weeks after the derailment of another freight train near Dunsmuir in Northern California. That accident destroyed the ecosystem of a 45-mile stretch of the Sacramento River. Railroad officials cast the Seacliff wreck as just a colossal inconvenience compared to the Dunsmuir disaster.

Last week, state regulators said that tight security at Seacliff has been removed, including night lighting and security guards. A trackside fence and warning signs still ring the last 10 cubic yards of contaminated soil. In coming weeks, a decision will be made whether to leave the soil as it is, to aerate it or to haul it away.

Many Seacliff claimants say that since the spotlight was taken off the railroad, their repeated phone calls to agents have gone unreturned or have met with empty promises that a payment decision was imminent. They insist that maintenance of the rail car whose axle was faulty was Southern Pacific’s duty, regardless of who owned it.

Doug Richardson, owner of the Seaside Banana Garden in La Conchita, filed a $3,400 claim on Aug. 3 for sales lost when traffic vanished alongside his roadside attraction.

After losing $250,000 worth of exotic produce to the December freeze, the owner of the only commercial banana plantation in the continental United States said the latest setback reduced his cash flow to a trickle and forced him to lay off several workers.

“They told me to bring in my sales records for substantiation and there’d be no reason why they couldn’t cut me a bank draft right away,” said Richardson, who said he provided two years of financial data. “It seems like all their initial concern was just a big show.”

One of Richardson’s 12 employees, Adolfo Cervantes, has been waiting for word on his $600 claim for lost wages. Cervantes, who picks and packs bananas for shipment, said he has gotten behind on bills because the railroad has not responded to his claim.

“I just think they are dragging their heels because they just don’t want to pay,” said Cervantes, 50, of Santa Barbara. “We feel desperation because we count on the money we receive each week. This has put a squeeze on all the workers here.”

Although federal, state and local government agencies flocked to Seacliff to oversee the cleanup, none have the authority to force Southern Pacific to respond to civil claims.

Aides to Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) have been prodding the railroad to settle several claims, including Richardson’s. But they have not succeeded either.

“They indicated that they would take care of everything, but people are having difficulty,” said John Doherty, Lagomarsino’s spokesman. “We’re disappointed that they haven’t moved faster. Certainly, these people are not to blame.”

The railroad, which insures itself against accident claims, has responded more slowly to claims in Ventura County than it did at Dunsmuir, where the highly publicized derailment illustrated to the nation how a natural resource can be quickly destroyed.

Immediately after the accident, Southern Pacific handed out checks of $300 to $500 for temporary housing and instructed area hospitals and physicians to send crash-related patient bills directly to the railroad, said John Ekwall, president of the Dunsmuir Chamber of Commerce.

About half of the 1,100 private claims stemming from the accident already have been settled, railroad spokesman Furtney said. As for public claims, Siskiyou County and the city of Dunsmuir were reimbursed $102,000 for emergency costs within 30 days, and the California Department of Fish and Game has been repaid most of the $1 million that it spent on the cleanup, Siskiyou County Administrator Michael Hanford said.

“All the businesses I know of that settled with them here said the railroad seemed very fair,” Ekwall said. “The only reason why they responded like that up here was because of the national media coverage that we got. It destroyed our economy.”

The Ventura County auditor’s office is still compiling derailment-related costs borne by county fire, environmental health and sheriff’s departments, and by five nearby cities.

Auditor’s spokeswoman Barbara Lopez said the county’s invoice, estimated soon after the accident at about $500,000, would be sent to Southern Pacific this week. If payment is not prompt, the county will charge interest on the unpaid bill, she said.

Seacliff residents, who account for most of the 35 to 40 people paid so far, have fared better than others. Most have been reimbursed for hotel, food and other expenses.

But even those claimants said payments were slow in coming. They said that before reimbursing their living expenses--generally a few hundred dollars--the railroad pressed them to waive any future legal claims, such as damage to their health because of hydrazine exposure.

“It took some arm-twisting,” said Seacliff Homeowners Assn. President David Cushman, who settled only after speaking directly with the railroad’s lawyer.

Furtney said the railroad has compensated Seacliff residents because that community fell under Southern Pacific’s “sphere of control” during the cleanup.

“We’ve assumed no liability, but we did recognize that, due to the necessity of closing off the Seacliff area, a hardship was imposed,” he said. “On that basis, we’ve been settling some claims.”

Many outstanding claims involve people who missed work because of the freeway closure, Furtney said. Most of those will probably be disallowed, he said, because those people simply chose not to confront the hours-long traffic backups.

“People claimed that they missed days of work because they lived at one end (of the closed freeway) and worked at the other,” Furtney said. “While it wasn’t a lot of fun, you could do it. If you got up early enough, you could go to work on time.”

Bloom Almeida of La Conchita chose not to endure a round-trip commute that lasted up to nine hours. Almeida, a car saleswoman, was working in Ventura when the derailment occurred and stayed with friends for three nights.

Days after the freeway reopened, she submitted a $177 claim for meals, toiletries and clothing, she said. The claims agent even suggested that she put down $12 for gas she used when she finally drove the detour route home.

“They told me in the claims office, ‘This is nothing, don’t worry about it,’ ” Almeida said. “They shouldn’t be quibbling over such a small amount of money.”

Ron Morris filed a $7,000 claim last week for lost rent and new carpeting at his two-bedroom oceanfront home in Seacliff. Morris said his tenant chose not to return when the evacuation order was lifted because a family dog left behind during the cleanup was found dead on the carpet.

“I hope they are going to take care of it,” Morris said. “But from what I hear, they talked a good story, but they aren’t paying.”

Furtney insisted that the railroad is not stonewalling.

“In some cases, we’ve had to go back to people and ask for additional information,” Furtney said. An outside adjustment firm was hired recently to help settle outstanding claims, he said. “The ones settled to this point were relatively less complicated to do. Everything takes time in our society.”

Southern Pacific has been getting three to four new Seacliff-related claims each week, Furtney said, and will continue to accept them for at least a year. Decisions on older claims should be made and letters sent to claimants in the next few weeks, he said.