Retired State Jurist Agrees to Hear Suit Over Landfill : Environment: Richard Abbe will oversee move to keep Weldon Canyon initiative off ballot. Two judges have recused themselves from case.

A lawsuit that seeks to keep the Weldon Canyon landfill initiative off the November ballot will be heard by a retired out-of-county jurist after two Ventura County judges excused themselves from hearing the highly sensitive case, and another was disqualified.

“In a sense, it’s a shame because it sounds like an interesting case,” said William Peck, a Ventura resident who opposes the project and is one of the two Superior Court judges who recused themselves from the case.

Judge Barbara A. Lane, a Ventura resident, also recused herself from the case, while proponents of the ballot initiative disqualified one of her colleagues--Superior Court Judge John J. Hunter, an Ojai resident.

After seeing the controversial lawsuit bounced out of three courtrooms, Superior Court Presiding Judge Melinda A. Johnson finally called Richard W. Abbe, a Santa Barbara resident and a retired justice from the Ventura-based 2nd District Court of Appeal. Abbe agreed to hear the matter, Johnson said.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to give voters a say on the controversial proposed landfill, prompting Ojai and Ventura city officials to file a suit against the measure.

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The board’s action, which places the landfill initiative on the November ballot, sets up a potentially divisive campaign that could pit east county communities against their west county neighbors.

The initiative would grant certain zoning and land-use powers to a San Diego County partnership that drafted the ballot initiative. That partnership, Taconic Resources, filed the affidavit of prejudice that disqualified Hunter from the case, a lawyer opposing the issue said.

Abbe’s appointment to the case--as well as the removal of three local judges--shows how widespread the Weldon Canyon landfill controversy has become, some said.

“Look, in a relatively small county . . . I sit on cases sometimes where I know parties on both sides,” Peck said. “The question isn’t that. The question is whether I can rule objectively on the facts and evidence. And in this case I feel entirely uncomfortable.”

Lane declined to say why she recused herself.

Presiding Judge Johnson said it was her impression that Lane’s mother has been involved somehow in the opposition to the ballot initiative. Johnson also said Peck’s wife has had similar involvement.

Peck said his wife has attended meetings sponsored by opponents of the initiative. As a judge, he is not allowed to participate in such political activity and has not done so, Peck said.

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The judge who was disqualified from the case, Hunter, declined comment.

An attorney who works with those opposing the landfill proposal said she is satisfied with Judge Abbe handling the lawsuit.

“We just want to get a hearing early before a judge,” said lawyer Katherine Stone. “We’re not going around judge shopping.”

The objective of the coalition against the proposed landfill is to have the measure declared illegal before county ballots are printed for the Nov. 8 election.

She agreed with Peck that whatever the outcome in the local courts, the decision will be appealed to higher courts. “This is the kind of case that could make some interesting law,” Stone said.

Taconic lawyers familiar with the lawsuit could not be reached for comment.

Johnson said it is unusual for the local courts to go outside the county for a judge. But she said it happens occasionally when a local lawyer who knows many of the judges is involved in a divorce or other personal legal dispute.

Justice Abbe announced his retirement from the 2nd District Court of Appeal in 1990, ending an eight-year tenure distinguished by rulings that clarified issues of family law and environmental protection.

Abbe was appointed from the Superior Court bench of Shasta County in 1982 by then-Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown to the appeals court covering Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Times correspondent Phyllis W. Jordan contributed to this story.