SM’s chief lawyer happy to defend progressive city
As City Hall braces for a steady stream of lawsuits to trickle in over the July 16 Farmers Market accident, the city’s top lawyer is confident they’ll be simple to defend.
Five claims have been filed against City Hall in connection with the accident. City Attorney Marsha Moutrie said she anticipates more will be filed in the coming months.
City Hall has rejected all five of the claims, which range from $500 to $250,000, said Deputy City Attorney Jeanette Schachtner. Lawyers, who anticipated City Hall would reject their claims, must now file lawsuits to recover any money.
But in order for City Hall to be found liable in the accident, lawyers must prove that a “dangerous condition of public property” existed when Russell Weller, 86, of Santa Monica, drove his car through the market on Arizona Avenue, leaving 10 dead and almost 80 people injured.
The California Highway Patrol, the lead investigator in the case, is expected to complete its report this month. The case will then be handed off to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which will determine if charges should be filed against Weller.
In the meantime, lawyers have been retained by the victims and their families. The lawyers said they will target Weller, City Hall and possibly General Motors, the manufacturer of the Buick LeSabre Weller drove through the market.
Despite that the circumstances are emotionally wrenching, Moutrie said the legal issues in the case are not particularly novel because City Hall is often sued when car accidents occur on public property.
“It’s pretty much the same with all lawsuits,” Moutrie said. “Those are hard because they’re sad and a lot of money is involved... but usually the law is clear.”
Been sued lately?
Moutrie’s office oversees a broad range of cases, from disputes over how the Santa Monica Airport should be used to land use litigation and misdemeanor criminal prosecution. In the 2002-2003 fiscal year, City Hall was sued 130 times, an average of once every 2.8 days, Moutrie said.
And in 2002, Moutrie said City Hall’s lawyers negotiated more than a dozen settlements, totaling $1.34 million. And despite more than $1 million in settlements, City Hall is known for not backing down — especially on frivolous suits.
“We win a lot,” Moutrie said. “That’s because we’re good... a lot of people may sue us because we’re deep pockets and (they figure), ‘Why not?’”
The City Attorney’s Office commands a $6,039,990 budget and has three divisions — criminal, civil and municipal law — as well as a special unit to deal with consumer and housing issues.
Moutrie, 56, has been at the head of the 42-person City Attorney’s Office for nearly 10 years. She said the most significant lawsuit her department has handled in the past decade relates to Santa Monica’s drinking water, which was contaminated in 1996 by underground gasoline storage tanks.
“I can’t think of a more valuable thing we can lose in Southern California than our water wells,” she said, adding the case is nearing completion after years of legal wrangling over who should pay to clean up the wells.
Deputy City Attorney Joe Lawrence, who is overseeing the case, said he is reasonably optimistic the case will be resolved soon through settlement negotiations. Fourteen oil companies were targeted by City Hall’s lawsuit, which seeks compensation for cleaning up the wells.
Playing politics
Members of the City Council, who are Moutrie’s bosses, describe her as a hard-working professional who is even handed.
435,“She doesn’t try to use her office to make policy,” said Councilman Bob Holbrook. “She uses it to give the best possible counsel she can to the City Council and ultimately to the city, which is not to say the council usually listens to her advice. I think if we listened to her more it would be less expensive and things would move along better.”
Attorneys that work under her also praised Moutrie’s professionalism and said she is known for being a smart attorney who separates her opinion from her legal work. It’s a style that sets her apart from her predecessor Robert Myers, said Schachtner, who has spent her entire 20-year legal career with the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office.
In 1994, Moutrie replaced Myers, who was fired for refusing to enforce an anti-camping law because he was fundamentally against it.
But Moutrie keeps her personal politics under wraps.
“I’m not elected, so I can’t (discuss them). I have them just like anybody else... I really believe in the process, I’ll say that. I’m kind of ‘Mom and apple pie’ about that. I really believe in that.”
Deputy City Attorney Tony Serritella, who has worked in both the public and private sector, said Moutrie is a good fit with the staff.
“She’s exceptionally knowledgeable and easy to work with,” Serritella said. “And she is not aloof at all.”
“She’s exceptionally knowledgeable and easy to work with,”
“And she is not aloof at all.” — Serritella said
Before taking over the legalities of Santa Monica, Moutrie worked at Richards, Watson and Gershon, a private L.A. law firm that primarily handles municipal cases. Moutrie worked briefly as a deputy city attorney in Santa Monica in the 1980s.
Though Moutrie’s impartiality has earned her the respect of people on both sides of local issues, some have been critical of her work. Because City Hall initiates many progressive policies and is known for passing controversial legislation that sometimes negatively effects big business, Moutrie is often found defending high profile issues that garner national attention.
That was the case with the living wage law, which the City Council passed in 2001 and was repealed by voters last fall. The law would have mandated all coastal businesses that make more than $5 million in annual revenue pay their employees $10.50 with benefits or $12.50 without.
Tom Larmore, a local property rights attorney, vigorously campaigned for the anti-living wage camp. His law firm, Harding, Lamore, Kutcher and & Kozal, has sued City Hall multiple times, and has at least two cases pending there.
“She finds herself in a difficult situation, sometimes, trying to defend very aggressive public policy decisions the council tries to make — I think sometimes very poor ones,” Larmore said.
Same old issues
Moutrie, who says she carries a reputation as a “round-eyed fanatic” and is a die-hard fan of the First Amendment, took the lead of the City Attorney’s Office in part so that she could work closer to her Santa Monica home and her twin sons, who are now 16 years old.
Having since moved to Thousand Oaks with her sons and husband of 20 years, David, Moutrie said that although a lot has changed in Santa Monica in the last 10 years, many things haven’t.
When she was hired, a homeless task force was being formed to tackle homelessness issues, camping in parks was outlawed and a host of other public safety issues were at the forefront of the political debate in Santa Monica.
Today, the constitutionality of a community events law — which puts restrictions on outdoor gatherings and requires groups that feed homeless people in area parks to obtain permits — is being challenged in court.
Moutrie, who grew up in Menlo Park and studied English at UC Berkeley and UCLA before dropping out of a graduate program to pursue law, said what has remained constant in the past decade is that the City Council has always been a pioneer with controversial new legislation.
She pointed to the failed living wage ordinance, the street performer ordinance, which limits when and where people can perform in public, and the failed ATM ordinance, which would have made it illegal for banks in Santa Monica to charge fees at ATMs.
“Santa Monica does all kinds of things that other cities don’t do,” she said. “In some ways I think of us as the capital of self expression.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 13, 2003. Read the original PDF.