Judge Rejects Mudslide Victims’ Claims

Lawyers for the families of people who died in the La Conchita mudslide said Thursday that a judge’s ruling tossing out some of their claims will cause some delays in their case but will not defeat them.

“There is no doubt ... we will go to trial,” said Anthony Murray, a lawyer from the Los Angeles office of Loeb & Loeb, which is representing family members of 10 people who died as well as people injured in the slide and other residents.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. this week threw out the plaintiffs’ allegations of negligence and trespassing against Ventura County, and told their lawyers that more substantiation was needed on several other points, including those concerning property owners up the hill from the slide damage, according to Murray and the owners’ attorney, Frank Sabaitis.

However, O’Neill allowed other allegations against the county to go forward, including the plaintiffs’ claim of wrongful death, Murray said.

Ten people died and 15 homes were destroyed in the landslide on Jan. 10, 2005.

A slew of lawsuits has been filed in the wake of the slide. Residents have claimed they were lulled into a false sense of security, and that a wall the county had built served to funnel the flow of dirt onto their homes.

Defendants have said that the area, which had been hit by landslides before, was a known hazard, and a poor location to build homes.