County’s Right to Bill for Cleanup Questioned : Toxic spill: Southern Pacific says it may not be able to recover the $717,000 in costs from ‘third parties’ that it believes are responsible.

Southern Pacific Transportation Co., taking a tougher legal position on payment of claims stemming from last summer’s toxic derailment at Seacliff, is now questioning whether Ventura County has legal authority to bill the railroad for more than $717,000 in cleanup costs.

In correspondence with the county, the railroad said it raised the issue because “if Southern Pacific has no legal obligation to pay the requested amounts,” it might not be able to recover its costs from “third parties.”

A Southern Pacific spokesman, Mike Furtney, said the third-party phrase was a reference to the liability of the owner of a flatcar that malfunctioned, which “SP believes caused the accident.”

Ventura County officials should not be overly apprehensive about being reimbursed, Southern Pacific attorney William Pohle said. But, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday, repayment should not be viewed as automatic.

“It’s an open question as to what (county officials) contend is their right to recovery, and we’re asking them for guidance in that respect,” he said.

Pohle declined to speculate when--or if--the claims would be paid.

County expectations for expeditious payment may have been raised by statements last year by Southern Pacific officials.

While attending an Oct. 30 meeting in Simi Valley called to investigate the July 28 accident, Herby L. Bart, in charge of Southern Pacific’s emergency response program, said the railroad would pay the claims “in a timely manner.”

Responding to a reporter’s query in November, Pohle said the county’s accident costs would be resolved “as expeditiously as possible.”

County Supervisor John K. Flynn said Wednesday that the delay didn’t surprise him.

“Any time you deal with Southern Pacific, you’re in for a long battle no matter what the issue is,” he said.

Recalling another fight a few years back with the railroad over a track right of way, he quoted a frustrated state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) as declaring that Southern Pacific “is a corporation that has more lawyers than boxcars.”

County Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee also expressed unhappiness with the railroad’s delay.

“The county is impatient,” Erickson Kildee said Wednesday. “The county doesn’t do business by waiting.”

On Dec. 18, when she was board chairman, Erickson Kildee wrote to George S. Schiller, the railroad’s claims manager, complaining that county officials were being greeted by constant busy signals and unreturned calls in attempts to find out what was happening.

In the letter, Erickson Kildee said that “out of sheer frustration,” a call was made by a county official to Furtney in San Francisco, who referred the matter to Pohle in Los Angeles.

“We have not received a return call from Mr. Pohle as of the (Dec. 18) date of this letter,” Erickson Kildee said.

Pohle said Wednesday that “I return my phone calls.”

Southern Pacific’s concern about the legality of the county’s claim was underscored in a Jan. 10 letter from Schiller to Norman R. Hawkes, Ventura County’s auditor-controller.

In the letter, Schiller said the railroad “wishes to cooperate in every way,” but that “we need to know the statutory basis for reimbursement. . . .”

Schiller also said Southern Pacific wanted assurance that there would be no additional claims from the county resulting from the derailment.

In the accident, more than 400 gallons of a toxic chemical spilled when 12 Southern Pacific cars slammed into an overpass of the Ventura Freeway. About four dozen homes at Seacliff were evacuated, and the freeway was closed during a five-day cleanup.

On Oct. 28, the county billed Southern Pacific for $716,741.23, reflecting the costs of several agencies--including fire, law enforcement and environmental--in coping with the accident.

Of that amount, $144,636.76 represented the accident-related costs of other government entities, such as Los Angeles and Kern counties and the cities of Ventura and Santa Barbara.

An additional bill was sent to Southern Pacific on Dec. 4 for $485.83, representing other Ventura County agency costs stemming from the derailment.

County Counsel James L. McBride said that he was, for the moment, willing to give Southern Pacific the benefit of the doubt and that no one is presently thinking of court action.

“I assume they’re being prudent,” he said.

He added, however: “I assume they’ll pay because they owe it. We expect them to pay it.”