As the city of San Diego continues with its first phase of repairs to the Oct. 3 landslide on Mount Soledad, more homeowners add themselves to the litigation list.
At least 15 homeowners, including those who own two homes that were totally destroyed in the last month’s landslide on Soledad Mountain Road at Desert View Drive, have retained counsel. Although the city continues to investigate the cause of the landslide, experts representing the homeowners have initiated a new testing program.
“We’ve requested to do a deep boring in the middle of where the slide occurred,” said Patrick Catalano, an attorney representing at least 15 homeowners at or near the Mount Soledad landslide. “We think the slide is due to leaky water and fire hydrants.”
Because the city is conducting its own investigation while the homeowners have decided to litigate, Catalano said the city’s probe into the cause of the landslide splits into part investigation and part litigation.
“What causes a landslide is water saturating a hillside,” Catalano said. “We have evidence that one fire hydrant was leaking for five days…There’s a lot of potential money damages and I’ve never had a city in the world come out and say that, yes, they were wrong.”
The first phase of construction involves drilling holes and installing shear pins into the side of the landslide.
According to Mayor Jerry Sanders’ office, experts began repairing the slide Oct. 31 and should be completed with the first phase by the end of November or early December.
Both the mayor’s office and representatives for the homeowners said they have been seeking engineering options that are now being evaluated, including those that would stabilize the landslide.
“Certain proposals are to put in some tie-backs, and they’re under consideration from our experts,” Catalano said.
Tie-backs are a method of preventing the slide mass from moving further. Tie-backs are needed as a preventive avenue that the area does not have, he said.
But with the cost to fix the area, rising into the arena of millions of dollars, the city came out and said it was going to deny the homeowner’s claims, Catalano said.
Right now, Catalano said he represents two homes destroyed in the slide. Along with what the home is appraised at, the homeowners lost the contents of their homes. Four homes are not completely destroyed but “suffered impacts like cracking,” he said.
The rest of the homeowners Catalano represents are near the slide but “will never be able to sell it because who’s going to buy it?” he said.