County OKs Insurance Settlement to Repair Courthouse

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

The county’s settlement with four insurance carriers resolves the largest portion of a dispute that has lasted more than two years between the county and insurers over the extent of the damage to the courthouse--and whether the damage was actually caused by the Northridge earthquake of Jan. 17, 1994.

The 13-year-old San Fernando Courthouse, a mission-style building that housed the North 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 for 2 1/2 years, 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.

Also Tuesday, the board directed the county’s Department of Public Works to open the bidding process on July 30 for the repair work. The cost of the first phase will be between $7.4 million and $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 and to be completed by March 10, 1997.

The insurers that agreed to the settlement are: Aetna Casualty Insurance, Landmark Insurance, Lexington Insurance and National Union Insurance. Home Insurance Co. and Insurance Company of North America have still not agreed to the settlement, although county officials said they are confident that those firms will settle soon.

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

In December 1995, the county and FEMA agreed on a damage estimate of about $9 million--a figure the county hoped the insurers would also accept.

The next advance, county officials said, did not occur until February after the county filed a lawsuit against the insurance consortium, claiming that the insurers were not negotiating seriously.

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky--who represents the area around the courthouse and who has pushed hard to resolve the dispute--said that the lawsuit forced the insurers to negotiate more seriously.

A representative of Maxson Young Associates Inc.--the adjuster for the insurance companies--said the insurers would not comment on the case.