Message Is Loud for 2 in Noise Suit

All Jeanne Brown and Laurie Lusk wanted was a little peace and quiet. Now, the two former Costa Mesa neighbors have been stuck with a bill for $3.3 million in legal fees.

Brown, who lives on her husband’s military pension and Social Security, and Lusk, a homemaker, could be left penniless by their latest effort to keep noise down at events at the Pacific Amphitheatre.

The women got in the middle of a business fraud lawsuit between the state-run Orange County Fair and Exposition Center and two major theater promoters over the promoters’ sale of the outdoor venue to the fair. Fair officials charged that the promoters lied about sound restrictions, which made it nearly impossible to hold concerts.

But Brown and Lusk, who lived within earshot of the amphitheater, joined the lawsuit to make sure the noise restrictions remained in effect.

The theater promoters, Nationwide Theatres Corp. and the Nederlander Organization, agreed in June to pay $16 million to settle the fraud allegations, but the women pursued their claim for noise limits--and lost. Last month, a judge ruled that because they lost, the women must pay the fair’s “reasonable” attorney fees and court costs.

The fair’s attorneys promptly decided to make an example of the women and their lawyer, Richard L. Spix, to deter further noise lawsuits. They turned in an initial bill for $4.3 million, then reduced it this week to what they call an “efficient” $3.3 million.

“It’s our hope that [Spix] will now inform the neighbors that if they decide to file frivolous lawsuits, there’s a downside,” said Thomas R. Malcolm, one of the nine attorneys representing the fair. “This is a deterrent effect we’re seeking.”

Brown, 68, said: “I can’t believe it. All we asked was for them to keep the sound down.”

Superior Court Judge Robert E. Thomas will determine at a March 5 hearing whether the women should pay the whole amount or something less. But legal experts already are questioning whether it is appropriate even to hold them liable for paying attorney fees to the state-owned and -operated fair.

“What California is doing here is trying to chill public participation in the decision-making process,” said UCLA corporate law professor Stephen Bainbridge.

“If these two women lose, it sends a message to everybody who participates in public decision-making that you’re risking bankruptcy if you oppose what the state is doing,” he said.

The women say they could be forced to file for bankruptcy. Lusk, 48, and her family have moved to a different part of Costa Mesa, but she said they could still lose their home.

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The amphitheater, which opened on the fairgrounds in 1982, delighted audiences with acts such as Guns ‘N Roses but outraged neighbors. The residents, including Brown and Lusk, filed lawsuits alleging that concerts were too loud and that promoters were violating established noise limits.

Fair officials said that after they took over the amphitheater in 1995, they scrupulously followed noise standards. They said Spix was to blame for their predicament because he refused to negotiate a settlement simply to prolong decades of litigation.

“Our goal is to send a message to Mr. Spix that he can’t bully us around. He’s been making a career out of getting neighbors to sue the fair for the last 17 years,” Malcolm said.

Spix said he has represented residents in two other lawsuits because every operator of the amphitheater has refused to obey a 1980 agreement on noise limits reached after Costa Mesa city officials sued the state. Both of his lawsuits resulted in noise limits being set, and in the second case, he won damages and free concert tickets for his clients.

He said the message that the fair’s attorneys are sending is “a fairly obvious attempt to silence the neighbors who had the audacity to sue such a big organization.”

Pamela Karlan, a Stanford University law professor, said it is rare for a plaintiff as big as the state of California to ask an intervenor like the two women to pay its legal fees.

“The traditional American rule is that each side pays its own fees, win, lose or draw,” Karlan said. “But there have been cases where intervenors should be responsible for some of the fees, especially if they’re responsible for prolonging the process.”

Spix said his clients wanted to settle, but the fair refused to agree to reasonable noise levels. Fair officials countered that the levels Spix offered still made it impossible to hold concerts of any kind.

Spix said he had warned both women that they could end up paying legal fees. But Brown said she had no idea the cost would be so huge.

“I thought it would be a thousand dollars, maybe two,” Brown said. “Not this.”