Judge Requires SAFCA to Pay Owner’s Attorney and Expert Fees

On June 5, 2013, the court ordered Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) to pay $278,825.25 to reimburse our client, the property owner, for the amount he had to spend on attorney’s and expert’s fees.  The court found that SAFCA had been unreasonable in making a final settlement offer, while our client’s attempt to settle was reasonable.  The court went on the state that SAFCA’s settlement tactics lacked good faith, care and accuracy.  SAFCA forced our client to go to trial.

The judge awarded our client every penny of the amount he had to pay to take the case through trial, and for the amount incurred after trial.

As we discussed in a previous post, the jury awarded him only $10,000 less, or 98%, of his appraiser’s opinion of just compensation.  SAFCA’s expert testified that the property owner should be paid $195,000 for the taking of a portion of his property, including two homes.  Our client’s appraiser, Arthur Gimmy, testified the property taken was worth $465,000.  The jury, after a two week trial, awarded our client $455,000.

The client offered to settle the entire case for $330,000.  SAFCA offered only $250,000.  The case could have settled if SAFCA agreed to pay an additional $80,000.  Instead of making a reasonable offer to settle, SAFCA has spent over $733,000- an amount which does not include payments to its own attorneys or experts.