Backed-Up Pipe Pours Sewage Over Court Files : Courthouse: About 200 civil case files were exposed to raw sewage when a backed-up pipe flooded a section of the downtown San Diego courthouse.

A backed-up pipe produced a torrent of raw sewage that washed down on Superior Court files at the downtown San Diego courthouse Friday, the latest in a string of physical woes to befall the dilapidated structure.

The sewage rained down on several hundred files in the third-floor records room at the courthouse, where some 12,000 civil case files are kept. Most were immediately covered with plastic sheets, but about 200 were exposed to the waste water, said Art Jones, presiding judge of San Diego Superior Court.

County health officials were called in to assess the problem, and court officials sent home 18 staff members who work in that section, said Superior Court Executive Officer Ken Martone. “This is just part of the continuing saga of the breakdown of this courthouse,” he said.

The boxy courthouse opened in 1961. In recent years, it has been regularly beset by rats and roaches. Authorities say there is asbestos, a known cancer-causing agent, in the ceiling tiles. Last June, brown water flowed out of the drinking faucets after sediment shook into the pipes during a nearby construction job.

In March, 1988, the courthouse basement flooded with sewage. This time, the leak began on the fourth floor, in a section of the court that was remodeled five years ago when four Municipal Court courtrooms were added.

A toilet on the fourth floor--in an area reserved for jurors and court staff--overflowed when a sewage line backed up, authorities said.

The floor at that location was not sealed when the area was remodeled, Jones said, so sewage seeped through the floor, percolated into the ceiling tiles of the third floor and gushed into the records room when three or four tiles gave way.

It was not clear late Friday what caused the backup or how many gallons of sewage spilled, Martone said. It also remained unclear whether there was any danger to staff members from asbestos that may have been shaken loose, he said.

Staff members said the records section should be open for business Monday. But the 200 or so files will have to be treated before they will be available again to the public, Martone said.

Health officials recommended that the soiled files be baked in an oven, at 180 degrees, for half an hour, as that would kill any bacteria in the paper, according to Martone.