MTA Contractor Loses Appeal on Damage Award

In another victory for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in its legal showdown with construction giant Tutor-Saliba Corp., a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday turned down the company’s appeal of a $29.5-million judgment and ordered it to pay an additional $2.4 million in interest penalties.

The transit agency also moved this week to expand the sanctions against the contractor, asking Judge Joseph R. Kalin to force Tutor-Saliba to pay an additional $34 million for the MTA’s legal fees and costs.

The six-year-long case came to a conclusion in July when Kalin abruptly ended testimony and ruled that Tutor-Saliba was guilty of unfair business practices and had intentionally destroyed key documents.

The Sylmar-based construction firm, one of the largest in California, was found responsible for a series of failures connected to its work on the Los Angeles subway during the mid-1990s.

Among the findings was that the company turned in false claims for payment, used minority subcontractors as fronts and engaged in more than 1,000 other unfair business practices.

The damage award was a significant victory for the MTA, although the agency had asked for even higher damages, $41 million.

The verdict struck a serious blow to Tutor-Saliba, a contractor that has helped build some of the state’s largest public works projects, from the subway to the Alameda Corridor rail project to the renovation of San Francisco International Airport.

Tutor-Saliba immediately filed a motion asking for a retrial and asked Kalin to reconsider his ruling.

Company Accuses Judge of Bias

The company’s representatives, including President Ron Tutor, blasted Kalin’s handling of the case, arguing that he was biased against the contractor.

Tutor-Saliba also said there was evidence that the jury’s deliberations were tainted.

Kalin rejected those claims Tuesday. He reinforced his earlier rulings and also found that the jury’s decision was fairly rendered.

“The verdict which was reached by the jury required intelligent consideration of the evidence,” Kalin wrote in his seven-page ruling.

He noted that polling of the jurors revealed that they had a detailed grasp of the complex issues involved in the case.

“Each juror thought out and reasoned her or his decision,” Kalin wrote, adding that there was “no juror misbehavior.”

Kalin also added $2.4 million to the verdict to compensate the MTA for interest it could have earned had it not been subjected to the false billings by Tutor-Saliba.

Reached for comment at his office, Tutor said he was hardly surprised by Kalin’s decision.

Appeal of Judge’s Ruling Is Vowed

As he did after the verdict, Tutor blasted the way Kalin ran his courtroom and said his company would never get a fair shake from the judge.

“If we said today was Tuesday, the judge would issue a ruling saying it was Wednesday,” he said.

Tutor vowed to ask for a review by the state Court of Appeal.

David Casselman, the MTA’s lead attorney on the case, said Tuesday’s ruling was a further vindication for the transit agency.

He also said it invalidated claims the company made to some of its clients and others, spelling out ways in which it believed the court erred.

“If all the propaganda they’ve been pushing were supportable, the court would have granted a new trial,” Casselman said.

The transit agency also moved this week to increase its recovery from Tutor-Saliba, filing papers with Kalin for $25 million in legal fees and $8 million in other costs, including paying experts and preparing documents.

Casselman termed the legal costs reasonable and said the MTA would have lost much more if it had not mounted a vigorous case against the construction giant.