San Fernando Valley : Homeowners Add Agoura Hills to Suit

A homeowners group seeking to recover damages from mudslides in their neighborhood has added the city of Agoura Hills as a defendant in an ongoing lawsuit.

Morrison Ranch Estates Homeowners Assn. filed the lawsuit in 1994 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The developer, Morrison Entity, was named, as were numerous subcontractors.

Monte L. Widders, an attorney for the homeowners, said Agoura Hills was added to the lawsuit because the city owns some of the property on which the slides occurred.

The association represents about 1,200 residences in an area bordered by Thousand Oaks Boulevard on the south, the Ventura County line on the north, Kanan Road on the east and Reyes Adobe Road on the west. The area includes a huge part of the city’s land mass and 20% of the city’s residents, according to city records.

City Manager Dave Adams said the city does not view the association’s latest move as an adversarial act. He said it was his understanding that the association added the city to the lawsuit after a judge ordered that the lawsuit be amended to include “anybody that ultimately may be at fault.”

Slopes have failed in about a dozen sites around the development in recent years, Adams said. The largest failures, according to city officials, have occurred north of Woodbrook Drive and north of the intersection of Fountainwood Street and Kimberly Drive.

The homeowners association has reportedly spent more than $500,000 in engineering studies, legal costs and for repairs caused by the slides. The association has not decided how much in damages to seek in the lawsuit because, Widders said, it’s “an ongoing investigation.”

A mediation session is expected to be held this summer, he said.

Also, a Central West courthouse jury recently absolved Agoura Hills of responsibility for a landslide in the city’s Via Amistosa neighborhood. Three homeowners had charged that the city had failed to adequately maintain the roadway along Calle Montecillo, causing slope failure that badly damaged at least two residences.