Spelling Says He’s No Expert on Roofs

Prolific producer Aaron Spelling might be an expert on what sells on television--witness the jiggle and soap of “Charlie’s Angels,” “Dynasty” and “Melrose Place”--but he told a jury Monday that he’s clueless about construction.

The white-haired multimillionaire explained to jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court that when he built his $48-million dream house on five prime acres in Holmby Hills, he placed his faith in his wife, Candy, and his contractor, Bob LaMar.

“I still don’t know what it is everybody here is talking about,” Spelling said, taking the witness stand in a courtroom cluttered with sheets of galvanized metal, twisted copper gutters, and other building materials stripped from his allegedly leaky roof.

Spelling was the first witness in his lawsuit against the R. W. LaMar Construction, the builder of his 45-room mansion completed in 1991 on the site of the former Bing Crosby estate. The trial, before Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs and a jury, is expected to last about 10 days.

The Spellings are seeking $776,000--what they currently are spending to replace their roof--plus punitive damages to be determined later. Their lawyer, Robert S. Chapman, told the jury that LaMar, who made about $3 million on the Spelling project, had promised the best design and materials possible, but instead installed a substandard sheet-metal roof that rusted and sprouted leaks in just a few years.

Holding up a section of roof, Chapman told the jury, “Look what’s happened. Rust, rust, holes. I just put my finger through this hole. Look at this piece. It’s just totally falling apart.”

But the contractor’s lawyer, Ted R. Gropman, argued that the Spellings got what they were willing to pay for. It was the Spellings, not his client, who wanted to cut corners to keep costs down.

The lawyer contended that Spelling told workers not to install copper on the roof where no one could see it, and that Candy Spelling burst into tears when he vetoed a greenhouse because “it would be cheaper to buy her an orchid every day.”

Spelling denied making the statements.

Gropman told the jury that it was the Spellings and others involved in the project--not his client--who made changes in the plans that left the roof without enough slope to drain adequately.

“This is Aaron Spelling who brought you ‘Love Boat’ and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and ‘Fantasy Island,’ ” Gropman said. “Now he’s bringing you his greatest work of fiction, which is Spelling vs. LaMar.”

He said the leaky roof resulted from a design flaw for which his client couldn’t be blamed. He also pointed out that the leaks didn’t appear until after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake.

On the witness stand, Spelling acknowledged that he didn’t become aware of any leaks until 1995--a year after the earthquake. He said he never saw any water damage in his house, except for some stains his wife showed him in the attic.

In his testimony, Spelling portrayed himself as someone who paid the bills but made few of the decisions in the building project.

During the five years of construction, Spelling testified, he was busy with television and film productions and left most of the decisions to his wife and contractor.

“I trusted Bob LaMar,” he said. “We were getting along very well.”

Yes, Spelling said, he signed some contracts but he didn’t read them. Yes, he said, he wrote his initials on a few documents, but he doesn’t recall what they were about.

“Ask my wife. I don’t know any of this,” he said time and again in response to Gropman’s questions. “I had very little to do with my house. My wife doesn’t read my scripts and I don’t read letters about the house.”

Spelling acknowledged that his dream house is “quite” large. Explaining his reasons, he offered some anecdotal evidence from his own life story:

“I was born in a house that cost $6,000 and had one bathroom and wall-to-wall people,” he told the jury. And, he said, after he was “almost killed” in a plane crash during the 1940s, he promised his mother he’d never again fly. “My house is more than a house, it’s a home for my wife, myself and my children. We seldom go anywhere.”

After he stepped off the witness stand, Spelling and his wife walked out of the courtroom and into a corridor, where they held hands, gazed into each other’s eyes and briefly kissed amid the grime and bustle of the busy courthouse.