Neighbors to Pay Litigation Fees Over Home for Dying

Westlake Lake residents who unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to stop neighbor Isobel Oxx from opening her home to the dying now have to pay her attorney’s fees.

According to a legal agreement issued last week by the Ventura County Superior Court, the 110-home Windward Shores Homeowners Assn. has until May 6 to pay Oxx $19,000. To raise the money, each homeowner--except Oxx--must pay a special assessment of $210 by this Friday.

Oxx, whose house is in foreclosure, no longer tends to patients in her home. However, she said Tuesday she may resume care.

“It was very pleasant to realize that the attorney’s fees would be paid,” Oxx said.

The same day that state regulators allowed Oxx to operate an in-home congregate care facility for the terminally ill in September 1995, the association sued Oxx to prevent her from opening the home she dubbed My Father’s House.

The 300-page lawsuit claimed that Oxx’s plans violated the association’s rules and regulations, if not state law. While the association’s governing documents prohibit in-home businesses, the state considers such facilities single-family residences.

At the time, neighbors said they feared the home would clog Leeward Circle with traffic and parked cars, that children would find wayward medical refuse and that the sight of ambulances and hearses would rock their lakeside tranquillity. They paid $250 apiece to build up a legal war chest.

During an open house to preview the facility, Oxx’s neighbors placed “For Sale by Owner” signs on their lawns in protest.

Oxx responded by filing complaints with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state Housing and Community Development Department, claiming her civil rights were being violated.

But early last year, the association’s members voted 45 to 34 to drop the lawsuit if Oxx agreed to drop her complaints.

According to Robert Saperstein, the association’s attorney, Oxx said she would not pursue attorney’s fees.

But within a month, however, Oxx’s attorney, Lyn Woodward of Los Angeles, filed a request to recover attorney’s fees. Although a Ventura County Superior Court judge denied the request in May of last year, a state Court of Appeal in Ventura reversed that decision in January. Woodward was not available for comment.

“The understanding was that each party would absorb their own attorney’s fees,” Saperstein said. “When they tried to put that into writing, the talks broke down and all bets were off.”

Saperstein added that the $19,000 figure represents a “compromise amount.”

Doris Goetz, president of Windward Shores Homeowners Assn., was not available for comment. However, according to a memo sent to all the homeowners, the board decided it was better to settle than fight Oxx, who could have been awarded as much as $25,000 in attorney’s fees.

Resolving the snafu with the homeowners association is not the end of Oxx’s legal woes. Her mortgage holder, Texas Commerce Bank, has foreclosed on her property and has filed an unlawful detainer suit against her to kick her out of the house.

Oxx said she intends to maintain possession of her house and may even reopen her home to patients now that money has been slowly trickling in from health insurance companies for patients she previously cared for.