$94.5 M Awarded Against San Diego

S A N  D I E G O, Jan. 3 -- A jury has recommended a $94.5 million awardagainst the city for a developer who claimed it ruined hisbusiness.

Municipal officials said they couldn’t recall any larger verdictagainst the city.

Tuesday’s verdict “would have a serious impact on the city” ifit stands, said Mayor Dick Murphy. “It would adversely impact theservices we provide.”

Roque de la Fuente was awarded $29.2 million for breach ofcontract plus $65.3 million as compensation for the city’sdecisions to route traffic through his 312-acre business park andto propose an airport nearby.

De la Fuente said those moves had cost him millions of dollarsby scaring off tenants from his Otay Mesa project near the Mexicanborder. He said the city had violated its 1986 contract with him tobuild the development.

Challenge Likely

City officials were considering appealing the San Diego SuperiorCourt jury’s verdict.

Deputy City Attorney Anthony Shanley argued during trial thatthe city did honor its agreement and that de la Fuente was simply“a relatively inexperienced developer” and the victim of theearly 1990s real-estate recession.

But jurors said city officials didn’t live up to their promisesand appeared to be deliberately trying to make de la Fuente’s lifedifficult. Juror Bob Symonds told The San Diego Union-Tribune hebelieved city officials wanted to make the development fail so theycould foreclose on the properties and re-obtain the land, which hadbecome more valuable since the contract was signed.