Power-Line Case Dismissed by Appeal Court : Health: Couple’s suit contended their San Clemente home was unsalable. A judge sends the matter to the PUC.

A state appellate court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by San Clemente homeowners who charged that their home was impossible to sell because of high-voltage power lines running beside their property, lawyers in the case announced Tuesday.

In rejecting the suit filed in 1993 by Jean and Martin Covalt, the 4th District Court of Appeal sided with the utility in ruling that questions of power-line safety should be heard instead by the state Public Utility Commission, said attorneys for San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

The case against the company was closely watched as a crucial battle in the debate over the alleged health danger from electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, which are emitted by power lines.

“For more than five years, a national group of attorneys has been peddling paranoia for profit in their attempts to mislead, misinform and motivate people into filing EMF-related lawsuits,” said Greg Barnes, assistant general counsel for the power company. “The decision takes the issue away from the lawyers and puts it into the hands of California’s electric safety experts.”

The company won a decision last year in a separate court case involving another set of San Clemente homeowners.

The firm then asked the appeal court to dismiss the Covalt case before it even went to trial, arguing that the EMF controversy did not belong in the state court system, Barnes said.

The Covalts abandoned their $1.5-million estate overlooking a canyon above north Camp Pendleton and said they were unable to sell it even after cutting the price by $750,000.

They and neighboring families had argued that their homes’ values were lowered when San Diego Gas & Electric added power lines to several already in place near their properties. Homeowners claimed the lines would scare off prospective buyers who feared a link between the emissions and cancer, and they asked that the lines be moved.