Dispute Over Decayed Trees Settled for $130,000 : Oxnard: Family says the problem started with a hospital project. The city, medical center and subcontractors will help pay removal and repair costs.

Oxnard, St. John’s Regional Medical Center and one of the city’s founding families have settled a tangled legal dispute stemming from the decay of a once-stately wind break of eucalyptus trees along Rose Avenue in north Oxnard.

As part of the agreement, many of the tall, beetle-infested trees must come down and part of heavily traveled Rose Avenue will have to be closed off during the day for four weeks in July, city officials say.

Under the settlement, the Maulhardt family, one of the pioneer farmers of the Oxnard Plain, will receive $130,000 to repair or remove the 400 eucalyptus trees it planted along Rose Avenue during the 1920s to protect crops.

Some of the trees are so weakened that they need to be leveled quickly before they fall on passing cars, city officials say.

Oxnard will pay $10,000, St. John’s $70,000 and four subcontractors 50,000, according to Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig.

The Maulhardts filed suit against Oxnard last year alleging that their trees began to die after the $110-million hospital was built nearby and subcontractors widened Rose Avenue from a two- to a four-lane road.

The construction deprived the trees of water, leaving them vulnerable to the bark-gobbling eucalyptus longhorn boar beetles, the Maulhardts alleged.

“We felt that the trees died as a result of the construction, and we shouldn’t be responsible for removing them,” said Richard Maulhardt Jr., co-owner of the 109-acre lemon and avocado farm bordered by the trees.

The city then sued St. John’s, saying it was not liable for any damages caused by the construction under its development agreement with the hospital.

In turn, St. John’s sued the four subcontractors who had done the work, alleging they had acted recklessly and damaged the trees. Richard Dear, the attorney for St. John’s, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

“Everybody was pointing the finger at everybody,” said Maulhardt. “But nobody was pointing the finger at us.”

Because of the complexity of the suit and the countersuits, all parties agreed to settle their differences before the July 31 trial date. The Oxnard City Council approved the settlement Tuesday.

Oxnard City Councilman Dean Maulhardt was a plaintiff in his family’s suit, but he stayed out of the negotiations after being elected to the City Council last November.

Northbound Rose Avenue between Soccorral Way and Camino Del Sol will be shut down Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for four weeks in July so that the gray, dead trees can be removed or pruned, Gillig said.

Oxnard traffic engineer Joe Genovese said the impact of shutting down a portion of the street--traveled by more than 20,000 cars each way everyday--would be significant.

But he added that city officials had already planned to shut down a portion of Rose Avenue near 5th Street in July to make improvements, so the timing was probably the best possible.

Maulhardt said his family was not completely satisfied with the settlement, which prevents them from suing Oxnard or St. John’s in the future if more trees die.

“That’s one of the risks we’re kind of taking,” he said.

Although the family had asked for as much as $250,000 during the negotiations, $130,000 was an acceptable compromise, he said.