Cities, State Sued for $10 Million in PCH Landslide

After months of fruitless negotiation, 31 homeowners whose houses were damaged in a massive February landslide have filed a $10-million lawsuit against the state, the cities of Dana Point and San Clemente, and several public agencies for failing to prevent the disaster.

The suit, filed Dec. 27 in Orange County Superior Court, also seeks a court order to force the start of remedial work.

Besides the damage to the property, which is “unmarketable and valueless,” the lawsuit contends, residents have suffered emotionally and financially.

Three weeks ago, one of the defendants, the city of Dana Point, agreed to start removing debris from Pacific Coast Highway in the area of the slide rather than wait for seven of the homeowners to agree to pay a total of $200,000 toward a broader project that would include restructuring the crumbled bluff above the road.

Dana Point officials had asked homeowners in August to keep negotiating at least until February before filing any lawsuit in court.

But at least one homeowner, Richard Vaughn, had already hired a contractor to start rebuilding his home and is now one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The complaint alleges that several public agencies, including Caltrans, Orange County Vector Control, the Orange County Flood Control District, Capistrano Beach Sanitary District, Tri Cities Water District and Capistrano Beach Water District as well as the cities of Dana Point and San Clemente, all contributed to the disaster.

They “were under a duty and obligation to take certain preventive actions concerning the conditions causing the landslide . . . and failed to maintain, design, or take protective measures,” the lawsuit states.

Some defendants, the complaint alleges, modified the cliffs by removing soil over a period of several years in connection with highway or other work, destabilizing the bluffs.

Others, such as the water districts, allegedly failed to fix leaky sewers and pipes. The leaks further undermined the hillside, according to the complaint.

The Feb. 22 landslide destroyed five bluff-top homes and still threatens 45 others.

The slide occurred along the boundary between Dana Point and San Clemente, sending mud and rubble cascading 75 feet down the hillside onto Pacific Coast Highway.

The highway is in Dana Point, but the populated bluff above is in San Clemente.

The lawsuit also contends that the two cities failed to investigate the condition of the hillside.

Public officials have denied responsibility, insisting that the coastal bluffs were prone to failure.