Judge Orders Mall Suit Be Tried in Ventura

The shopping mall legal battle between Oxnard and Ventura will be fought in Ventura County but presided over by an out-of-town jurist, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Retired state Court of Appeals Justice Richard Abbe of Santa Barbara became the third judge assigned to the lawsuit, which was brought by Oxnard in hopes of stopping the $50-million planned expansion of the Buenaventura Mall.

Oxnard attorneys had asked acting Ventura County Superior Court Judge John J. Hunter to move the trial out of the county, claiming the city could not get a fair trial at the county courthouse in Ventura.

“I just believe it is improper to hear the case in the city limits of one of the litigants,” Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig said.

But Hunter sided with Ventura attorneys, who argued moving the trial to another county was unnecessary and would prove too costly and time-consuming. Hunter did agree to assign an out-of-town judge to the case to remove any appearance of conflict of interest.

“We are pleased by the ruling; we saw no reason to move it out of the county,” said Ventura City Atty. Peter Bulens. “Certainly they are entitled to an outside judge.”

Hunter was assigned the case after Ventura County Superior Court Judge William L. Peck recused himself because he lives and owns property in Ventura.

Gillig, while satisfied with the selection of Abbe to decide the suit, said he will ask that the case at least be heard in a Simi Valley courtroom.

“It should be moved from the city of Ventura to remove any appearance of conflict,” Gillig said.

But Bulens argued that moving the case to Simi Valley would serve only as an inconvenience.

“I just don’t buy the idea that the publicity surrounding this will affect the judge,” Bulens said. “Justice Abbe is too good of a judge to let that happen.”

Abbe, who retired in 1990 from the 2nd District Court of Appeals, also served as a substitute judge last year in a suit the county brought against Community Memorial Hospital and in a 1994 case involving a ballot measure for the Weldon Canyon landfill.

He ruled in favor of Community Memorial’s efforts to seek voter approval for the county hospital’s expansion plans, a measure decided on Tuesday’s ballot. But he threw out the landfill backers’ initiative in 1994 seeking support for the Weldon Canyon dump. Supporters redrafted the measure, and it appeared on Tuesday’s ballot.

The Oxnard City Council is seeking to stop expansion of the mall, claiming the Ventura City Council violated state laws in approving a $32-million tax-rebate deal with mall owners. Oxnard council members allege in their lawsuit that the deal is an illegal giveaway of sales tax revenues.

Both anchor department stores in The Esplanade shopping center in Oxnard have agreed to move to the Buenaventura Mall once expansion is complete. The agreement calls for mall owners to pay for the $50-million renovations but would let the developers keep up to $32 million they normally would have had to pay the city in sales tax over the next 20 years.

Ventura officials say the deal is legally sound and the only way to keep the 30-year-old mall economically competitive. The mall is one of the highest sales-tax generators in the city.