LAGUNA BEACH : 2 Hired to Appeal Landowners’ Victory

Hoping to overturn its most staggering legal defeat, Laguna Beach will hire two high-profile attorneys--including a former U.S. secretary of education--to appeal a $19-million judgment won by landowners in the Diamond-Crestview neighborhood.

City officials announced they will hire Shirley Hufstedler, secretary of education under President Jimmy Carter, and Otto M. Kaus, a former state Supreme Court associate justice, to continue waging one of Southern California’s longest-running land-use battles.

Mayor Ann Christoph said the City Council’s decision to hire the attorneys reflects the seriousness with which the city views the Orange County Superior Court ruling in October.

Laguna Beach has been represented by City Atty. Philip D. Kohn of the Costa Mesa law firm Rutan and Tucker. The law firm of Hufstedler & Kaus is in Los Angeles.

The Diamond-Crestview case involves 38 landowners who sued the city more than eight years ago, claiming it had essentially taken their property by not installing streets in a timely manner so they could build homes in the rural neighborhood.

Following other court rulings, Orange County Superior Court Judge David E. Brickner said in October that the city must pay the property owners $11 million for their land, $3.4 million for attorney’s fees and other costs and interest that amount to about $4.4 million, according to the city’s news release.

The almost $19-million total is equal to the city’s annual general fund budget, the statement said.