Pursuit of Legal Fee Is Just Not Fair

* I read the Feb. 15 article regarding the two ladies being sued by the Orange County Fair for legal fees. My fury has no bounds!

Thomas R. Malcolm, attorney for the fair, at least admits that this action is an attempt to silence complaints and intimidate two ordinary citizens who suffered enormously during the years the Pacific Amphitheatre was in operation.

Jeanne Brown and Laurie Lusk had the stamina to accept a leadership position and to represent many others whose lives were disrupted by the indescribable noise from that venue.

As for the attorney for Brown and Lusk, Richard L. Spix, getting the message from Malcolm that “he can’t bully us around . . . [by] making a career out of getting neighbors to sue the fair for the last 17 years,” why would anyone continue to sue if the fair and its tenant had been even moderately fair? Frivolous lawsuits? Ha!

From the beginning, the fair board’s cavalier attitude was that the neighbors had no rights and probably not the finances to pursue a legal battle.

The fair obviously still smarts from the settlement reached between former amphitheater operator Nederlander Organization and the long-suffering residents of the Mesa del Mar section of Costa Mesa.

In my opinion, the fair knew exactly what it was doing when the amphitheater was purchased and intended from the onset to have the noise limits lifted.

If Spix is willing to spend another 17 years of legal battling to ensure that we maintain our private property rights and mental health, then I’m behind him!

MAUREEN DIDOMENICO

Costa Mesa

* The Pacific Amphitheatre, as in amplified theater or the concert hall that should never have been, is at it again.

Now attorneys for promoters who manage the state-run fairgrounds are billing nearby residents who have sought to limit the amplified noise.

Two residents, having lost their legal battle to limit the noise, are now being billed $3.3 million by the victorious attorneys.

The Costa Mesa Fairgrounds, on whose property the Pacific Amphitheatre sits, is managed by the state of California. I was always under the impression that the democracy under which the state of California was founded, encourages, even depends on, citizen participation.

How can the state encourage participation with a $3.3-million price tag on it? It is bad enough that these neighbors were forced to go to court just for some peace and quiet.

One of the victorious attorneys is quoted as saying “This is a deterrent effect we’re seeking.” Deterrent to what, differing with our own government?

TOM BARNUM

Laguna Beach