U.S. Sues Ranch Over Mudslide Damage

The federal agency holding the mortgage on five worthless La Conchita homes Monday filed suit against the ranch above the town, blaming ranchers for the mudslide that devastated the beach-side community.

The five homeowners, who were forced to flee their badly damaged homes in the wake of the slide, have stopped making monthly payments to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and are in default, said attorney John F. McGuire Jr., who filed the lawsuit for the government in Ventura County Superior Court.

The government seeks damages in the “amounts it will be unable to collect under the various home loans, as well as lost interest, costs of suit and other amounts ascertained.”

The suit names the La Conchita Ranch Co. and its various parent companies as defendants.

The mortgage corporation contends that the ranch company’s excessive watering of its avocado and citrus crop directly contributed to the slide, which destroyed nine homes and damaged scores more.

McGuire also represents 140 La Conchita residents in a related lawsuit against the ranch. In that suit, the residents blame the ranch company for the slide, contending that a change in irrigation habits severely weakened the hill. The suit also claims that ranch workers further weakened the hill when they cut an access road across the slope.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and asks a judge to order the ranch to clean up the mess and stabilize the hill.

Some residents also blame the county for allowing the ranch to replace its grazing land with citrus and avocado trees, which require a large amount of water. But since the slide, county officials have maintained that the legal dispute is solely between the residents and the ranch.

Ventura County has not been named in the lawsuit. And in January, Superior Court Judge Barbara A. Lane ruled that the county is not required to clean and reopen the closed portions of Vista del Rincon.