SIMI VALLEY : Suit Over Draining of Lake Is Revived

In a new round of a 9-year-old legal battle, a state appeals court has ruled that a Simi Valley-area homeowners group can proceed with its $15-million lawsuit against the state over the draining of a neighborhood lake.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura on Tuesday overturned a Ventura County Superior Court judge’s decision to dismiss the Sinaloa Lake Owners Assn. lawsuit over the draining of Sinaloa Lake.

State officials said Wednesday that they will ask the state Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s decision.

The Sinaloa Lake Owners Assn. Inc. represents homeowners in the Sinaloa Lake neighborhood, an unincorporated county area surrounded by the city of Simi Valley.

The homeowners association sued the state in 1983, alleging that the California Department of Water Resources’ Division of Safety of Dams had illegally drained the reservoir in an effort to prevent potential flooding downstream.

But Sinaloa Lake homeowners, who live upstream from the lake, contend that it was unnecessary to drain the lake to prevent flooding.

The homeowners group initially filed the case in federal court, suing the state, six state engineers, the city of Simi Valley and Ventura County.

A federal court dismissed the state as a defendant in 1984.

In 1990, the homeowners group sued the state again, this time in state court.

But Ventura County Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson dismissed the case, citing the statute of limitations, Davis said.

This week, however, the state appeals court held that the statute of limitations did not apply because the legal battle had continued in federal courts between 1984 and 1990.

The homeowners group had pursued a federal suit against state engineers.

But that case was dismissed by a federal judge last week.

William Hill, president of the homeowners association, said the group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on its legal battle.