Lodi, California - Warning to Investors and Business People

[Anonymous via the Cypherpunks Tonga Remailer]

Stay away from Lodi, California. You will lose all your assets. The City
is waging war on any business or property owner it can lay its hands on.
Former property owners, landlord, and tenants are not immune. They are
even suing dead peoples' estates going back in time as far as 70 years! If
Lodi can do this, can your town do it too? Foreigners beware of buying
property in the U.S.A. and California in particular. You stand to be
swindled out of your investment by local governments.
*****
>Lodi expands toxics suit
>Defendants total 153
>By Jeff Hood
>Lodi Bureau Chief
>Published Thursday, August 5, 2004
>
>LODI -- Lodi broadened its failing, 4-year-old environmental lawsuit
>Wednesday, rewriting it to include 153 companies, business and property
>owners -- at least 23 of whom are dead.
>
>The rewritten case touches virtually all downtown companies that allegedly
>used certain chemical solvents over the past 70-plus years or their
>landlords. It also represented a significant change of strategy for the
>city, which originally set out to win legal settlements from insurance
>companies that had written beefy policies for about a dozen businesses and
>individuals.
>
>The city planned to use those settlements to pay for cleaning up plumes of
>groundwater and soil contamination concentrated in downtown Lodi, leaving
>businesses and property owners themselves virtually untouched.
>
>The revised suit asks that each defendant clean up individual sites to
>which they are connected. Old insurance policies still could be tapped to
>pay for deceased defendants' liabilities, recently appointed City Attorney
>Steven Schwabauer said.
>
>"You pay your freight," he said. "You pay your share."
>
>Among those added to the lawsuit as defendants Wednesday were:
>
>* Lakewood Mall on Ham Lane, which state environmental agencies have not
>identified as a polluted site.
>
>* San Joaquin Sulphur, off North Sacramento Street.
>
>* The Lodi Unified School District.
>
>* Numerous estates and trusts created by now-deceased Lodi residents.
>
>Attorney Lori Gualco, who has defended Church Street dry-cleaner Guild
>Cleaners, long a suspected polluter, against the city for a decade, called
>the revised lawsuit shocking.
>
>"I looked at this and, honest to God, I didn't know whether to laugh
>hysterically, throw up or start crying," she said. "We're back to where we
>started from."
>
>Schwabauer said Lodi named so many defendants because Wednesday was the
>court deadline for revising the lawsuit, the old case was not leading to a
>cleanup, and legal tactics by opposing attorneys left it no choice.
>
>Lodi fired its environmental law team, headed by Michael C. Donovan, and
>City Attorney Randall A. Hays, on Jan. 13 after U.S. District Judge Frank
>C. Damrell Jr. criticized Lodi's former legal strategy.
>
>The San Francisco law firm Folger, Levin & Kahn now represents the city.
>
>"We want to get all the parties together and figure out how to pay for the
>cleanup," Schwabauer said. "It's a necessary part of cleaning up what
>happened before. It's really just housekeeping."
>
>Lodi named just 15 defendants in the original case. More than 100 others
>-- including the Lodi Unified School District -- were dragged into the
>battle by the original defendants, who allege others were either
>responsible or shared liability for the pollution.
>
>The city's newest filing adds those defendants, but it also names 21 who
>had, until now, been excluded from the legal morass on which the city has
>spent nearly $30 million.
>
>A man who would not give his name but identified himself as a part owner
>of Preszler Electric, one of the newest defendants, said it's absurd for
>Lodi to sue his North Sacramento Street business.
>
>"They're all screwed up and don't know what they're doing," he said.
>
>No one was available for comment from Stone Bros., which owns Lakewood Mall.
>
>Gualco said the new suit complicates matters and brings up issues on which
>Damrell has already ruled.
>
>She called it a "full-employment" lawsuit for attorneys and said she would
>ask Damrell to fine the city's attorneys for rehashing old legal arguments.
>
>"It's Donovan all over again," she said.
>
>Several attorneys said they were surprised the city's suit didn't name
>manufacturers of dry-cleaning equipment as partially responsible for PCE,
>the primary solvent contaminating downtown's soil and groundwater.
>
>Greg Call, one of Lodi's new attorneys, brought up that possibility to
>Damrell in a June 4 hearing, and the judge gave Lodi until Wednesday to
>revise the lawsuit. The new filing, however, did not include those
>manufacturers, even though a state appeals court ruled they could face
>liability in connection with a similar pollution suit in Modesto.
>
>Attorney Aaron Bowers, who is defending Lodi's Odd Fellows Hall
>Association -- named in the original suit because it owned property likely
>polluted by a former tenant of their property -- predicted Damrell will be
>angry about the 54-page revision, because it doesn't move the case forward.
>
>"It's not like Daddy Warbucks is defendant No. 147," Bowers said. "It's
>the same group of people. ... They say they want to seek resolution of
>this case, but their actions tell another story."
>
>PCE and a related chemical, TCE, are suspected human carcinogens. They
>were first found in city drinking-water wells in 1989.
>
>Attorneys for Folger, Levin & Kahn could not be reached for comment.
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>------
>
>* To reach Lodi Bureau Chief Jeff Hood, phone (209) 367-7427 or
>e-mail jh...@recordnet.com
>
>Defendants
>M&P Investments;
>
>The estate of Dwight Alquist; Jack Alquist; The Alquist Family Trust;
>
>The estate of Alvin Allmendinger;
>
>American Stores Properties Inc.;
>
>Beckman and Co.;
>
>Beckman Capital Corp.;
>
>Angelina Comporato;
>
>Guild Cleaners Inc.;
>
>Lodi Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth Inc.;
>
>The Lodi News-Sentinel;
>
>Lucky Stores Inc.;
>
>David Mustin;
>
>Odd Fellows Hall Association of Lodi;
>
>The estate of Frank Paul;
>
>The estate of Raymond Roemmich;
>
>Alfred P. Roes;
>
>The Weil family trust; The estate of Jack P. Weil; Marlowe F. Weil;
>
>The estate of Arthur W. Marquardt;
>
>The estate of Carolyn J. Marquardt;
>
>The estate of Clyde C. Church;
>
>The estate of Emma H. Church;
>
>Frederick Weybret;
>
>Lustre Cal Nameplate Corp.;
>
>Ackel Investment Co.; Charles Ackel; William Ackel; The estate of Norma Ackel;
>
>Northridge Mills Inc.;
>
>The estate of Norval Gundershaug;
>
>Gundershaug Electric Co.;
>
>Thomas Gundershaug;
>
>GHT Motors;
>
>Ehlers Auto; Ehlers Holding Inc.;
>
>Loren Ehlers and Mercedes Ehlers;
>
>Cain Electrical Works;
>
>Herman C. Weber; Ida P. Weber;
>
>JD's Body and Paint;
>
>Lodi Chrome;
>
>Super Mold Corp.;
>
>Intercole Subsidiary Inc.;
>
>Kayser-Roth Corp.;
>
>Taren Holdings Inc.;
>
>Brad C. Benson; Elizabeth Benson;
>
>The estate of Nancy Lee Benson;
>
>Lodi Printing Co.;
>
>Hertha Katzakian; Phil Katzakian;
>
>The estate of Oscar Katzakian;
>
>The estate of Euville Enderlin;
>
>The estate of Vinal Benson;
>
>Rick C. Kiesz and Yvonne J. Kiesz;
>
>California Pallet Corp.;
>
>Tokay Foundry Corp.;
>
>Ramirez Motors;
>
>Holz Rubber Co. Inc.; Oldco Holz Inc.; William G. Holz Co.;
>
>Randtron;
>
>Technical Equities Inc.;
>
>West American Holdings;
>
>Gerald J. Vanderlans;
>
>Vanderlans & Sons Inc.;
>
>Theodore H. Rosen;
>
>Dolores Grace; Gary Grace; Lou Grace;
>
>Millie Dunn;
>
>Otis Harrison Jr. and Belle Harrison;
>
>Ottis Verna;
>
>Payless Cleaners;
>
>Harold Koenig;
>
>Ernest Folendorf and Jane Folendorf;
>
>Lodi Coin-Op Dry Cleaners;
>
>Eleanor L. Houston;
>
>The estate of Annie Coldani;
>
>The estate of David Raridan;
>
>The estate of Glenn R. Houston;
>
>The estate of Henry Coldani;
>
>Hazel O. Houston;
>
>Jan F. Odland and Carol G. Odland;
>
>Jerome Bookin and Catherine Bookin;
>
>Joseph K. and Judith L. Newfield;
>
>Lodi Avenue Centers L.P.;
>
>Rand Jeffrey Spraggins and Mildred Phyllis Spraggins;
>
>Robert Spiekerman;
>
>United Dry Cleaners;
>
>Virgil and Marjorie Froemke;
>
>Fred Lewis; Jeanne Lewis;
>
>Connie Dewalt Scott;
>
>Delano Gotelli;
>
>Deluxe Cleaners;
>
>The estate of Harry L. Bader;
>
>The estate of Irene Schneider;
>
>Marjorie F. Bader; Robert O. Bader;
>
>Lodi Unified School District;
>
>Michael Norris;
>
>Molly F. Duncan;
>
>Norge Equipped Laundry and Cleaning Village;
>
>Paul Mariani;
>
>Tokay Coin-Op Laundry and Dry Clean Center;
>
>Victor Leonardini;
>
>James J. Babcock;
>
>Service Laundry and Dry Cleaners;
>
>Siu Yin Kong;
>
>Advance Cleaners;
>
>Cecil B. Clancy and Mary L. Clancy;
>
>The estate of E.A. Allison;
>
>General Electric Capital Corp.;
>
>Leland L. and Shirley A. Hildenbrand;
>
>William and Grace Hildenbrand;
>
>Harman Managers Investment Ltd.;
>
>Michael Bollinger; Peter P. Bollinger;
>
>Peter P. Bollinger Investment Co.;
>
>Sidney W. and Alice G. Allison;
>
>Spivak-Bollinger Development Co.;
>
>Lodi Launderette/Lodi Laundry and Dry Cleaning;
>
>John Stanley Bowen;
>
>Eddie Freshour;
>
>San Joaquin Sulphur Co.;
>
>Ralph A. and Frances A. Burlington;
>
>Bruce A. and Norma J. Burlington;
>
>Preszler Electric and Pump Service;
>
>Richard Preszler;
>
>Stone Bros. and Associates;
>
>Steve Cho;
>
>Charles Bott;
>
>Ron Daniel.
>