For residents of the 65 homes affected by the 2007 landslide along Soledad Mountain Road, a ruling in their case against the city leaves them without compensation, and in some cases without a home, while potentially saving the city millions. A Superior Court judge ruled last week that the city is not liable for damage sustained by homes during the landslide that occurred Oct. 3, 2007. The slide caused the evacuation, condemnation and eventual demolition of several homes. The court remained unconvinced that water from damaged pipes caused the earth to shift underneath homes. The decision could save the city a lot of money. “It’s all a little bit unclear and a lot of it was… speculative, but we could’ve been exposed to tens of millions of dollars if we would’ve been found liable,” said Alex Roth, a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Sanders. “[The homeowners] went through a horrendous ordeal and they deserve everyone’s sympathies.” But while the city may be off the hook for now, attorney Michael Hearn, representing 16 families affected by the tragedy, said an appeal is not out of the question. He said experts pointed to “four failures” in the city’s water line during 2007 but ultimately failed to prove the breaks caused the slide. For virtually all of his clients, compensation from the city would have be the only way to recoup at least some of what was lost, he said. “They [homeowners] had no assistance from their own insurance. So I feel very sorry for those folks — they lost their home and there’s nobody there to help them,” Hearn said. “I say virtually all of them because it does not look like any one of them will get insurance money to help reestablish a home for them.” Hearn’s firm was part of a team representing 65 homes affected by the landslide. Ernest Ledterman, a 91-year-old resident of the 5800 hundred block of Soledad Mountain Road, lives an estimated 50 yards from a condemned home. He said he’s not surprised insurance companies would not compensate. The retired engineer and geologist said he was aware of the potential instability of the soil on the hill when he purchased his home during the early 1960s. He said his insurance company used to cover and compensate residents for small slides. “Once they wised up to what was happening, they excluded that [coverage],” he said. Ledterman admits his home has several cracks, which he believes stem from moving earth beneath his home on the hill. “So if your home slides down, that’s it,” Ledterman said. “I just don’t think about the cracks.” While the city may have potentially saved millions in compensation so far, the city has already forked over millions to the outside firm representing the city during trial. “As of May 31 of this year, the Butz Dunn & DeSantis law firm had been paid attorneys’ fees in the amount of $2,067,372.43 and $367,058.40 in cost reimbursements,” said Geena Coburn, a representative with the San Diego City Attorney’s Office, in a written statement. That figure does not include trial and trial preparation and there are additional billings that would cover costs incurred after May 31, but they have either not been submitted or paid, she wrote. A representative of the firm did not immediately return calls requesting comment. Though Soledad Mountain Road currently remains open, scars of the past evidenced by an empty lot, a home deemed inhabitable and San Diego Gas and Electric crews setting up electrical poles and wires are still visible up and down the street.