Displaced Shop Owner, State Settle Lawsuit : Court: Henry Bartle will get more than $1 million for the loss of his business to make way for the Santa Ana Freeway widening.

The state has agreed to pay more than $1 million in compensation to the owner of a Corvette specialty shop who lost his business to make way for widening of the Santa Ana Freeway.

The settlement between the state Department of Transportation and Henry Bartle, owner of California Corvettes, came minutes before a jury trial was set to start Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court. Lawyers in the case would not specify the settlement amount, except to say it was more than $1 million.

Bartle, who had run the full-service automotive shop on North Santiago Avenue in Santa Ana since 1975, was forced out of business several months after the state moved to take the property in 1992 for the freeway project, said his lawyer, Michael H. Leifer. Bartle has been unable to find a new home for the business.

“He searched approximately 50 sites to determine if he could move,” Leifer said. “It was extremely difficult.”

State officials offered Bartle about $286,000 for his company machines and equipment, but the two sides were unable to agree on compensation for his inventory and less tangible amounts related to benefits the shop gained through its location and reputation, said Eric J. Fleetwood, an attorney with the Department of Transportation.

The actual owner of the property housing the Corvette business settled with the state for more than $1 million several months ago, Leifer said.

The property is just one of hundreds acquired by the state for the massive, multibillion-dollar Santa Ana Freeway widening project. Federal law requires that government entities pay fair market value for private property taken for public use through eminent domain.

The scheduled trial before Judge Leonard Goldstein, with the jury already seated, helped spur the Corvette business settlement, which both sides described as fair.

“There’s a greater sense of urgency at trial time,” Fleetwood said. “Also, more facts tend to come to light.”

He added: “Overall, this (settlement) was probably in the range of what a jury would have come in at.”