Dispute Settled Over Courthouse Repairs

The county Board of Supervisors approved a settlement with a group of insurance companies Tuesday that will provide $17 million to repair the quake-damaged San Fernando Courthouse, aiming to put it back into operation by next March.

The county’s settlement with four insurance carriers resolves the largest portion of a two-year dispute over the extent of the damage to the courthouse--and whether the damage was actually caused by the Northridge earthquake of January 1994.

The 13-year-old San Fernando Courthouse, a Mission-style building that housed the north San Fernando Valley district’s Superior and Municipal courts, suffered buckled roofs, deep wall cracks and damaged support beams.

Wrangling over the insurance settlement has delayed repairs, leaving businesses in the neighboring commercial area on the brink of ruin, and the courthouse’s judges and attorneys packed into cramped temporary quarters at the Van Nuys Courthouse.

Supervisors on Tuesday directed the county’s Department of Public Works to open the bidding process for the repair work. The cost of the first phase will be $7.4 million to $10.3 million, all which will be reimbursed by the insurers or the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The repair work is scheduled to begin in mid-September.

The dispute began after conflicting damage claims by the county, FEMA and the insurance consortium that held the policies on the courthouse. The squabbling led to a lawsuit filed by the county against the insurers.

Last December, the county and FEMA agreed on a damage estimate of about $9 million--a figure the county hoped the insurers would also accept. Two months later, the county filed a lawsuit against the insurance consortium, charging that the insurers were not negotiating seriously.