Verdict on Trees Favors Pruners, Not Huggers

Marina Simes’ view was that the family across the street illegally lopped off the tops of her 27 trees so they could have a panoramic view of the ocean beyond her house.

The jury’s view was that the tree trimming was an act of kindness to help an old woman whose Palos Verdes Peninsula home was overgrown by aging pepper trees, pines and other tree species that were a fire hazard.

All of which means that Scott Wildey, 25, didn’t climb out on a legal limb in 2001 when he and his buddies dropped in on Simes, 92, and offered to help tidy up the place.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury rejected claims by Simes and her family against Wildey and his family seeking $480,000 in damages for the pruning incident. The judgment, filed two weeks ago, ends a neighborhood dispute that was being watched by many who live in coastal communities where ocean views are far more coveted than leafy shade trees.

The tree pruning occurred on a bluff across the cove from the famous Wayfarer’s Chapel. The Sea Cove Drive neighborhood is covered by strict Rancho Palos Verdes laws that protect residents’ ocean views from being obliterated by tall trees.

In extreme cases, the city will seek court authority to send crews onto private property to trim offending trees if their owner refuses to do so.

After filing her lawsuit in 2002, Simes said that she and her late husband had planted the trees around their low-slung oceanfront home 40 years ago and they were of sentimental value to her.

“It broke my heart to see them cut, it really did. How could anybody have done such a cruel thing?” she asked.

Simes’ daughter, Pamela Simes Fleming, said Scott Wildey’s mother, Eva, had signed a statement accepting responsibility for the pruning and explained the motive in a telephone call.

“Mrs. Wildey called at 9 the next day and said, ‘We cut them down to give my husband his dream -- an ocean view,’ ” Fleming said in an interview in 2002. At that time, Eva Wildey declined to comment.

During the trial, however, Scott Wildey testified that he had volunteered to clean up the overgrown yard and Simes had accepted.

“The son was simply trying to help her. The place was a mess, and he and others were taking care of her,” said James Turken, a lawyer representing the Wildeys.

“The son had been over cleaning up and noted the yard was a fire hazard, with pine needles stacked high. He said, ‘Can I come over with some friends and clean up for you?’ According to the son, Mrs. Simes said, ‘Great.’ ”

Turken said that Eva Wildey’s husband, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Thomas Wildey, was on duty at the fire station when she telephoned Fleming to say that her son would be coming over to pick up chopped branches left from the previous day. “She never said anything about an ocean view. Eva testified she never said it.”

The lawyer indicated that jurors were swayed by testimony that Scott Wildey and his friends weren’t on Simes’ property long enough to cut the tops off 27 trees and that additional tree trimming occurred much later.

Now 95, Simes did not testify in person during the trial, but a videotaped deposition was played for the jury.

Members of the Wildey family did not return calls seeking comment about the verdict. Neither did members of Simes’ family. Their lawyer, David Chodos, is out of the country.

Which means there still may be differing viewpoints over how trees fit in with Sea Cove Drive’s scenic view points.