Deep Into L.A.’s Pothole Controversy

It wasn’t the Trial of the Century, there was no Dream Team of lawyers, but the parties had come to a Los Angeles courtroom prepared for an all-out fight.

Over a pothole.

It’s probably not surprising that in a city where the asphalt is riddled with bone-jarring divots, cracks and craters, drivers are going to court to seek compensation for damage done to their cars.

Earlier this month, a Sierra Madre woman, dressed in sweat pants and sneakers, stood before Municipal Judge Robert L. Hess arguing that the city of Los Angeles should pay for the damage to her Sterling caused by a chuckhole.

“I had no way of avoiding this very deep pothole,” Catherine Gallagher told the judge. She brought along snapshots of the pothole at Alvarado and Temple streets. “Wow,” the judge said as he looked at pictures of the $3,000 in damages, including a blown tire, bent frame and twisted rim. Her insurance paid for $2,000, but she was still seeking to recover $1,000.

“The city had no knowledge of this pothole prior to the incident,” said Robert Arevalo, a city attorney’s investigator, giving the city’s pro forma defense.

The city won the case. The ruling was mailed out two weeks later, and the judge gave no explanation for his decision. But other drivers continue to file claims against the city over damage caused by potholes left by this year’s storms. And sometimes they win.

Los Angeles, with the nation’s largest street system, receives about 400 calls a week about potholes. Some of the chuckholes have made trips down some streets seem like stagecoach rides in the Old West. Relatively few pothole complaints end up in court.

“Some people even claim they’ve had a traffic collision as a result of hitting the hole and losing control of the vehicle,” said Steve Peters, chief investigator of civil liability for the Los Angeles city attorney.

Cars are not the only victims of the pothole. Paul Pilkington, last year’s Los Angeles Marathon winner, said he stepped into a pothole and consequently fell out of this year’s race early.

“I couldn’t find it,” countered Pat Howard, director of the city’s Bureau of Street Maintenance, who went looking for the alleged pothole. “These streets were made for driving,” he added. “They weren’t made for running.”

Fixing potholes can make political careers. Former County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn was legendary for taking a different route to work every morning scouting for potholes. He once offered a $1 bounty for every pothole sighting in his district (a rash offer that cost him $3).

And when the city recently received a windfall of $50 million, Mayor Richard Riordan said the money would be used to pay for more police and . . . to fix potholes!

The issue has even reached Capitol Hill, where Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) has pushed legislation to require federal highway contractors to guarantee their work.

Los Angeles officials say they try to fix potholes within 24 hours of receiving a complaint. When pothole repair crews are not responding to complaints, they are scouting for potholes. But the problem is so bad that dozens of potholes can be easily found on the streets around City Hall--right under the noses of public works officials.

The city must know about a dangerous condition and neglect to fix it in a reasonable time in order to be held liable, Peters said.

Senior Assistant City Atty. Thomas Hokinson added that drivers also bear responsibility for trying to avoid potholes. “They should be looking where they’re going,” he said.

“Just because damage occurs from a condition of public property doesn’t mean the public entity is liable,” Hokinson said. “It has to be a condition which creates a substantial risk of injury when the property is used with due care.” City officials say that if a driver is speeding when he or she goes over a pothole, for example, it would constitute “contributory negligence.”

No record is kept of how many drivers file claims or how much the city pays for damage caused by potholes.

A judge in small claims court recently awarded a BMW driver $2,000--without explanation--but the city will probably appeal, claiming that the amount is excessive. Arevalo said the city tried to settle the case for $500 because it received about 11 other claims involving the same pothole.

City public works officials, meanwhile, say they are doing their best to keep the streets in good condition within a tight budget.

The city is repaving 200 of the 6,500 miles of city streets this year, up from the 100 miles repaved in the previous fiscal year.

Still, many streets are in terrible condition, public works officials acknowledge.

“We’ve had decades of deferred maintenance,” said Greg Scott, assistant director of the Bureau of Street Maintenance.

Some streets have so deteriorated that they require reconstruction rather than the simpler and less-costly repaving.

“The old trolley tracks are not far beneath the surface on Broadway,” Scott said, noting that the Downtown street has been on a waiting list for major street work for more than a decade. “We’re going out there patching continually.”

With street work competing for gas tax funds with freeway projects and transit projects such as the Metro Rail subway, Los Angeles has enough money in this year’s budget to completely rebuild only 10 miles of street.

Gallagher, meanwhile, said she has no regrets about going to small claims court over a pothole. “I didn’t just lie down and let the city run over me,” she said.

To report potholes on Los Angeles city streets, call (213) 485-5661. On freeways in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, phone ( 213 ) 897-0380.