Substantial Victory – Class Action Lawsuit

Collinsworth, Specht, Calkins & Giampaoli partners James Ganion and Jason Specht secured a substantial victory for their developer clients in San Diego Superior Court, winning summary judgment on a significant class action lawsuit. Plaintiffs claimed negligence related to the design of a reservoir constructed in the early 2000s for a municipality as part of an agreement to develop a northern San Diego subdivision.

The action was filed more than 10 years after completion of the reservoir and following expiration of the statute of repose, but the Plaintiffs alleged the developers engaged in willful misconduct in the reservoir’s design, thereby seeking to negate the statute of repose. The Plaintiffs had certified a class of over 500 homes and were seeking damages to replace all of the copper piping in the residences with polyethylene tubing, at a purported cost of over $50 million. An extensive, targeted discovery strategy culminated in the filing of the summary judgment motion which was thoroughly briefed, and supported with extensive evidence which relied almost exclusively on Plaintiffs’ own experts to establish there was no willful misconduct.

The motion was vigorously argued, and ultimately the court ruled in our favor, putting to rest over 10 years of contentious litigation.