Lawsuit

Two women who claimed to have fallen about 11 stories while inside a malfunctioning elevator in Irvine have settled a lawsuit against the elevator manufacturer and the Irvine Co. Janet Hsu and her mother, Sufeir Hsu, reached a confidential settlement with ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. and the Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. last month, according to court records. According to their claim, filed June 22, 2011, the two were aboard an elevator inside the Irvine Co.-owned high-rise business complex at 1 Park Plaza.

COSTA MESA — The state appellate court has agreed to extend the Orange County Fairgrounds hearing to give Gov. Jerry Brown time to review the case, according to court records. The hearing date has not been set yet, but it's no longer taking place Feb. 8. The Department of General Services, which is in charge of selling the fairgrounds, asked the court and the parties involved in the lawsuit opposing the sale of the property to give the new governor 30 days to review the case and determine how he wishes to proceed.

COSTA MESA — A lawsuit filed in May by city employees hoping to stop the proposed mass layoffs has tentatively been scheduled for April 9, city officials confirmed Friday. The complaint by the Costa Mesa City Employees Assn. argues that the City Council's decision earlier this year to outsource more than 40% of the city workforce violates state law. Orange County Superior Court Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann issued a temporary injunction against Costa Mesa over the summer that, until the case is resolved, prohibits the city from laying off its employees and replacing them with workers from the private sector.

An Estancia High School student is seeking $10,000 to $25,000 for injuries he said he sustained while lifting weights, according to a lawsuit filed against the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Estancia. The male student, through his guardian, filed the lawsuit Feb. 10 in the Orange County Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that the student was lifting weights during a physical education class May 23 when he was injured "due to the negligent, careless, reckless, wanton and unlawful acts of defendants.

A Corona del Mar man's federal lawsuit alleging that racial epithets were put on his restaurant receipts has been settled, court records show. In his civil complaint filed last March, Mark McHenry says he found the N-word and variants of it on several of his receipts from the popular Landmark Steakhouse in Corona del Mar. Some of the receipts, according to the complaint, also included remarks like "Black is the new white" and indicated that...

SANTA ANA — An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that four Costa Mesa residents can have their say in litigation over whether their city's proposed charter should be allowed on the June ballot despite being filed late. Judge Franz Miller decided lawyers John B. Stephens and Katrina Foley, and an attorney representing Mary Spadoni and William "Billy" Folsom, can intervene in Costa Mesa's lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters. Miller had tentatively ruled against permitting the intervention, but later changed his mind after hearing arguments from Stephens and Foley.

COSTA MESA - A grass-roots group wants a court order to stop the Orange County Fairgrounds from remodeling the Pacific Amphitheatre. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 20, the Orange County Fairgrounds Preservation Society, an activist group comprised of local stakeholders, accuses the Fair Board of trying to expand the theater in phases that sidestep the limitations implemented in the fairgrounds' 2003 master plan and PacAmp's environmental impact report....

A woman is suing Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, claiming that two months after an MRI machine crushed another patient’s leg in 2009, she had her arms burned during her MRI exam there. Patricia Lopez filed a lawsuit against the hospital last week. She is asking for unlimited damages, and claiming medical negligence and custodial neglect, because she is a dependent adult suffering from a disability. What kind of disability Lopez has was not immediately clear. According to the complaint, on March 12, 2009, Lopez was diagnosed with a distal deep vein thrombosis, and she complained of shortness of breath.

Deepa Bharath A lawsuit filed by the father of a former Corona del Mar High pitcher against the school's baseball coach, alleging that the coach made false and derogatory statements about his son in an interview published by the Daily Pilot, was dismissed Wednesday by a superior court judge. The lawsuit alleges the pitcher was subjected to public humiliation and ridicule in the December 2001 story and also accuses the Daily Pilot and one of the paper's sports reporters, Richard Dunn, of libel, saying that they published coach John Emme's comments about 6-foot-3 right-hander J.D. Martinez knowing that they were false and libelous.

Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner Jim Fitzpatrick resigned from his post Tuesday to keep his seat on the city's Sanitary District board, according to a letter sent to Mayor Eric Bever. In his letter, Fitzpatrick says his fellow Sanitary Board directors are using ratepayer funds in the amount of tens of thousands of dollars to sue him, both personally and as a director. "I have become a political piñata and it needs to stop," he wrote. "Our ratepayers shouldn't have to bear the cost of political grudges.

Two women who claimed to have fallen about 11 stories while inside a malfunctioning elevator in Irvine have settled a lawsuit against the elevator manufacturer and the Irvine Co. Janet Hsu and her mother, Sufeir Hsu, reached a confidential settlement with ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corp. and the Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. last month, according to court records. According to their claim, filed June 22, 2011, the two were aboard an elevator inside the Irvine Co.-owned high-rise business complex at 1 Park Plaza.

The Newport Beach City Council will have a chance to vote publicly at its regular meeting Tuesday on whether to sue the Orange County Transportation Authority, after some dispute over whether or not it has already done so. The confusion centers in part on a public statement issued Tuesday by City Attorney Aaron Harp seeking to clarify the accuracy of a Daily Pilot opinion column, which stated that the council voted to sue OCTA. A few days prior to that, Harp had sent an email to a community activist stating there was a 6-1 vote to sue. The "vote" was reported by Daily Pilot columnist Jack Wu, based on that email.

SANTA ANA — An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Monday that four Costa Mesa residents can have their say in litigation over whether their city's proposed charter should be allowed on the June ballot despite being filed late. Judge Franz Miller decided lawyers John B. Stephens and Katrina Foley, and an attorney representing Mary Spadoni and William "Billy" Folsom, can intervene in Costa Mesa's lawsuit against the Orange County Registrar of Voters. Miller had tentatively ruled against permitting the intervention, but later changed his mind after hearing arguments from Stephens and Foley.

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District board will use taxpayer money instead of its directors' stipends in its attempt to oust a director. Board President Robert Ooten asked his fellow directors Thursday to split the legal costs in the effort to remove Director Jim Fitzpatrick from his elected position, but his peers opted to keep their full stipends. Ooten, however, said he will pay one-fifth of the costs from his $221-a-meeting stipend to move the board majority's case against Fitzpatrick forward.

An Estancia High School student is seeking $10,000 to $25,000 for injuries he said he sustained while lifting weights, according to a lawsuit filed against the Newport-Mesa Unified School District and Estancia. The male student, through his guardian, filed the lawsuit Feb. 10 in the Orange County Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that the student was lifting weights during a physical education class May 23 when he was injured "due to the negligent, careless, reckless, wanton and unlawful acts of defendants.

A Corona del Mar man's federal lawsuit alleging that racial epithets were put on his restaurant receipts has been settled, court records show. In his civil complaint filed last March, Mark McHenry says he found the N-word and variants of it on several of his receipts from the popular Landmark Steakhouse in Corona del Mar. Some of the receipts, according to the complaint, also included remarks like "Black is the new white" and indicated that...

Cities statewide saw their redevelopment agencies officially dissolve Wednesday after a Sacramento County judge refused to put a hold on the process during a court hearing last week. Attorneys from the Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker law firm argued Friday that portions of a state law that dissolved the RDAs were unconstitutional and exceeded the governor's powers during a fiscal emergency. They were seeking an emergency stay on the law, which took effect Wednesday. The firm represented a coalition of 10 Southern California cities that did not include Costa Mesa.

COSTA MESA - A grass-roots group wants a court order to stop the Orange County Fairgrounds from remodeling the Pacific Amphitheatre. In a lawsuit filed Jan. 20, the Orange County Fairgrounds Preservation Society, an activist group comprised of local stakeholders, accuses the Fair Board of trying to expand the theater in phases that sidestep the limitations implemented in the fairgrounds' 2003 master plan and PacAmp's environmental impact report....

NEWPORT BEACH - At the base of Spyglass Hill, past the mortuary, sits a 20-acre reservoir filled with enough water to supply the city of Newport Beach for seven days. Atop the basin, which was dug in 1958, rests a large, rubbery black cover. It gives the appearance of an enormous water bed that's dusty with debris left by gathering birds and carried in by sea breezes. The cover for Big Canyon Reservoir, whose capacity is nearly 200 million gallons, was meant to last 20 years when it was installed in 2004 to protect the water supply from algae, flies and other contaminants.