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Attorneys Barry J. Reagan and Claudia H. Mellring Obtain Defense Verdict

Attorneys Barry J. Reagan and Claudia H. Mellring obtained a full defense verdict for their client, a homeowners association, from a jury trial in Los Angeles County. Plaintiff, a homeowner in the development, sued the association for personal injuries and damages arising from her home shifting atop the hillside it was built on.

Plaintiff claimed the homeowners association was to blame based on the assertion that they had failed to properly irrigate the land resulting in the subsidence that caused property damage to the home. She maintained that the damage to her home caused her significant emotional distress. Defendant countered that they had properly irrigated the land, but also contended that irrigation was not the significant cause of the subsidence. Rather, this subsidence was inevitable due to the nature of the hillside and the proximity of the home to it. There was nothing that the association could have done nor failed to do that would change this natural occurrence.

Plaintiff asked the jury for nearly $300,000 for the cost to repair her home and the associated emotional damages thereof. If liability was found, the Court would then rule on an additional $160,000 to repair the hillside. The total Plaintiff was seeking was close to $460,000. However, the jury returned a full defense verdict, finding no liability whatsoever on behalf of the association and the collateral issue was then moot.