AGOURA HILLS : City Will Pay Settlements for Storm Damage

Agoura Hills has settled a lawsuit with two families whose homes were destroyed in 1993 when rain-soaked hillsides gave way along the residential street Via Amistosa.

The Agoura Hills City Council voted in executive session to award $395,000 to Richard and Elizabeth O’Linn and $375,000 to William and Irene Ferber, city officials said.

The money, officials said, will come from a joint-powers authority that insures the city.

“My clients are pleased,” said Alvin B. Green, an attorney for the O’Linn family. “We figure our clients saved a lot of money in legal fees, and that Agoura Hills saved a lot of money in legal fees.”

The O’Linns have since moved to Thousand Oaks, Green said. They are living in a house they bought with financial assistance from one of their parents and plan to stay there, he said, adding that he does not know what the O’Linns will do with their settlement.

The Ferbers could not be reached for comment.

The city will take possession of the Via Amistosa properties, he said.

The mudslides began Feb. 14, 1993, and devastated homes valued between $300,000 and $400,000. The O’Linns said in a newspaper article at the time that they were asleep when they were awakened by loud noises. They ran outside the house, which began moving off its foundation.

“It’s a pretty traumatic experience for a young couple to have to go through,” Green said.

Greg Stepanicich, an attorney for the city of Agoura Hills, said the mudslides were caused by inadequate drainage on hillsides above the homes, which were built before the city incorporated in 1982.

The drainage plans, he said, were approved by Los Angeles County.

Green said Agoura Hills assumed legal responsibility for the drainage after the city incorporated.

City officials also blame the mudslides on residents in the neighborhood, who, the officials said, failed to maintain storm drains on their property. The city, according to Stepanicich, received $5,000 in a settlement with one of the property owners, Anwar Akhtar.

Meanwhile, Green said, lawsuits by other homeowners on the street are still pending.