San Juan to Appeal Verdict in Landslide

San Juan Capistrano will appeal last week’s $1.5-million verdict against the city in which jurors found that its negligence in maintaining hiking trails caused a 10-acre landslide that damaged two private properties in San Clemente.

El Nino storms waterlogged the trails, triggering the 1997 slide, jurors ruled.

In addition to neglecting drainage, San Juan Capistrano hasn’t sufficiently repaired 30-foot crevices the slide created, said Serge Tomassian, an Irvine attorney who represented the property owners.

“They don’t understand their duty to make sure these cracks don’t open up again,” he said.

Attorneys representing San Juan say the city filled the fissures and that they present no danger to passersby.

As for the drainage issues, the city has no obligation to provide maintenance that extensive to its open space, said Ed Richards, the Santa Ana attorney whose firm represented San Juan Capistrano. He added that because a landslide starts from the bottom, soaked hiking trails at the slide area’s summit could not have been its cause.

The city regularly inspects and fixes the trails, but requiring more upkeep of open space is cost-prohibitive and makes it difficult to keep the property in its natural state, Richards said.

“What this decision says is that cities need to spend the money to go out there, pave this roadway and put in permanent drainage service -- and just completely destroy what it is they’re trying to preserve,” he said.

The $1.5 million will cover repairs for property owners Margaret Rozbicka, who lost almost half of her 7-acre parcel, and Raymond and Saundra Hoyal, who own a 1 1/2-acre tract, 400 square feet of which was damaged in the slide.