Judge Finds Fraud Over Sale of House in Slide Area

Former La Conchita residents John and Nancy Peltier committed fraud when they concealed landslide dangers from another couple interested in buying the Peltiers’ hillside home, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Robert Ryan and his wife, Maureen, bought the three-bedroom residence on Vista Del Rincon Avenue for $280,000 in August 1994. Less than six weeks later, Ventura County officials warned residents that the hillside would fall, and on March 4, 1995, it did.

The landslide destroyed nine neighboring residences and damaged dozens more. Although their house was not significantly damaged, the Ryans fled and never returned.

The Ryans sued the Peltiers, claiming the sellers lied about the hillside and refused to disclose two smaller landslides that occurred nearby.

Ventura County Judge Barbara Lane awarded the Ryans $280,000 and attorney fees. Lane also said in her 48-page ruling that the Ryans are entitled to punitive damages. She ruled that the Peltiers committed a “withholding of material facts” that she termed “willful, calculated and intentional.”

“Obviously, [the Ryans] are pleased with the ruling,” said Kirk J. Sawyer, the Ryans’ attorney. “But I would say they are relieved that is over. They are certainly not overjoyed. They have been through a lot.”

Lane said she will schedule a hearing next month to determine the amount of punitive damages the Peltiers must pay.

“This is a tremendous blow to them financially,” defense attorney Robert Sawyer said. Sawyer said John Peltier is a retired roofing tile salesman and that Nancy Peltier is a homemaker.

“They don’t really have much money,” he said.

The Ryans get to keep the house, which has been assessed at zero value since the massive landslide. But Grossman said the Ryans have no intention of moving back to La Conchita and now rent an apartment in Ventura.

The Ryans also joined 80 other property owners in a lawsuit filed in Ventura County Superior Court that blames the farm above the town for causing the March 1995 landslide.

That suit alleges that La Conchita Ranch Co.’s watering of its avocado and citrus fields above the town made the hill unstable. The suit also alleges that an access road the farm owners cut across the middle of the hill added to its instability.

Because of the slide, the remaining homes in La Conchita have lost much of their value and are effectively unsalable. Residents complain they cannot even secure home improvement loans because many of the houses have been assessed without value.