Pair Sues Metrolink for Property Damage

Two former Simi Valley residents are suing Metrolink and its operator for allegedly causing their house to flood so badly during a February storm that they can no longer live in it.

In a suit filed Friday in Ventura County Superior Court, Gary and Deborah Moss are seeking unspecified damages from the Southern California Regional Railroad Authority, which runs Metrolink, for the losses caused by the river of mud that swept into their home last winter. The couple is already out $340,000, the suit says.

According to the suit, the Mosses’ house on Casa Grande Road near Simi Valley is located in a rural area studded with oak trees.

Elevated train tracks run by the Southern California Regional Railroad Authority lie next to the house, and a natural watercourse drains next to the Moss property and under the tracks through a culvert owned by the authority.

Last November, according to the suit, the railroad authority reduced the width of the opening of the culvert from five feet to three feet.

The suit states that the reduction caused water, mud and debris to wash onto the Mosses’ property four times and into their home twice, rendering the residence uninhabitable and the pool a sump and destroying personal property, including furniture and fixtures.”

The house was in such a waterlogged state after the flooding that the county Building and Safety Department deemed the home uninhabitable. But the home hasn’t been condemned.

“That’s the reason for the lawsuit,” said Glen M. Reiser, the Mosses’ attorney. “They can’t live there, but no one is paying them anything. And they can’t sell it because it has no value.”

Reiser said that a hydrologist has indicated that the property is likely to flood yearly. In addition, it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to fix the dry wall and the foundation, he said.

“They could rent it as a summer rental, but it would cost them $100,000 every year to refurbish it,” Reiser said. “It has a negative value really.”

Reiser said the railroad authority never had an explanation for why it reduced the size of the culvert.

No one was available Friday at Metrolink or the railroad authority to comment on the suit.

After their home was damaged, the Mosses lived with relatives then rented a house in the San Fernando Valley.

This is not the first time the family has had problems with the Casa Grande property. After they bought the house in 1992, the couple called the park district to get approval on materials for a fence. When district officials came out to survey the property, the Mosses were told that all of the backyard up to the bedroom window was actually park property.

After a lengthy dispute, the Mosses lost almost all of their 1,500-square-foot backyard.