CC SR 20220906 F - Claim Against the City Conjunction Junction
CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: 09/06/2022
AGENDA REPORT AGENDA HEADING: Consent Calendar
AGENDA TITLE:
Consideration and possible action regarding a claim against the City by Conjunction
Junction LLC.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
1) Reject the claim and direct Staff to notify the claimant, Conjunction Junction LLC.
FISCAL IMPACT: None
Amount Budgeted: N/A
Additional Appropriation: N/A
Account Number(s): N/A
ORIGINATED BY: William W. Wynder, City Attorney
REVIEWED BY: Teresa Takaoka, City Clerk
APPROVED BY: Ara Mihranian, AICP, City Manager
ATTACHED SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
A. Conjunction Junction LLC claim (page A-1)
B. City Attorney Letter (page B-1)
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION:
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes (City) is a member of the California Joint Powers
Insurance Authority (Authority), which provides risk management services and handles
any liability claims received by the City. Under the current practice, claims presented to
the City Clerk are forwarded by the Authority to a third-party claims administrator, Carl
Warren and Company (Carl Warren) for adjusting.
Carl Warren’s staff reviews each claim on its merits and contacts the City with any
requested action pertaining to the disposition of the claim. The City Clerk and the City
Attorney review each claim when received and work closely with Carl Warren throughout
the claims process.
1
Claimant:
On August 3, 2022, the City received a claim for damages from Conjunction Junction
LLC. The claim was referred to Carl Warren for review and investigation. The claimant
has demanded that the City provide a street address for vacant property allegedly owned
by the claimant. Staff has declined to provide such an address for the reasons set forth
in a letter to the claimant from the Office of the City Attorney. The Claimant seeks the
cost of installing a fence and indemnity from any trespass resulting in damage to the
property.
Deposition:
The CJPIA has advised that this claim is not covered by the memorandum of coverage
and has forwarded the same to the Office of the City Attorney for review and
recommendation. The City Attorney’s Office has reviewed the claim and found that there
is no liability for the City on the basis there is nothing in the City’s municipal code that
allows or requires the City to issue addresses on vacant property, neither has the City an
obligation to pay for the installation of a fence. The City Attorney, therefore, recommends
denying the claim for damages.
2
A-1
A-2
William W. Wynder
2361 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 475
El Segundo, CA 90245
01203.0005/805442.2
July 22, 2022
SENT VIA E-MAIL eilenberglegal@gmail.com ONLY
Beniamin Eilenberg
Conjunction Junction LLC
Subject: Administrative Appeal Letter; July 19, 2022
Mr. Eilenberg:
We are City Attorney for the City of Rancho Palos Verdes. Your purported administrative
appeal (of which we have been copied) has been referred to our office for a response. For the
reasons that will follow, no administrative appeal is afforded in the Rancho Palos Verdes
Municipal Code from a declination to provide you with a street address, nor do you cite to a section
of the municipal code that so affords.
While the City appreciates the frustration you may feel given the United States Postal
Service declined to issue an address and referred you back to the City, there is simply nothing in
the City’s municipal code that allows or requires the City to issue addresses on vacant property.
Neither does your letter cite to any such authority.
Your letter suggests that the City’s failure to provide you with the requested property address
amounts to an unconstitutional “taking” of property. That is wrong as a matter of law. See, Colony
Cove. v. City of Carson, 888 F.3d 445 (9th Cir. 2018) (“If ‘an owner possesses a full “bundle” of
property rights, the destruction of one “strand” of the bundle is not a taking, because the aggregate
must be viewed in its entirety.’ . . . Not every diminution in property value caused by a government
regulation rises to the level of an unconstitutional taking. Government hardly could go on if to
some extent values incident to property could not be diminished without paying for every such
change in the general law. . . . Thus, we have observed that diminution in property value because
of governmental regulation ranging from 75% to 92.5% does not constitute a taking. [Citation
omitted.] The Federal Circuit has noted that it is ‘aware of no case in which a court has found a
taking where diminution in value was less than 50 percent.’”)
There are options available to you to secure the property in question that do not require a
property address. You may be free, for example, to fence the property which will require no
permits or entitlements from any public agency. We are advised the Los Angeles County
Assessor’s office will assign vacant lots a designation known as “VAC/VIC” (“vacant lot in the
B-1
Beniamin Eilenberg
Page 2
01203.0005/805442.2
vicinity of”) as a proximity designation for your property. Such a designation may also be
sufficient for your purposes.
In short, the City is not in a position, nor does it have the legal obligation, to assign a street
address to vacant property. Finally, as already noted by City staff, your vacant property is located
in an active landslide zone. In RPVMC § 15.20.020 “the city declare[d] a moratorium on the
filing, processing, approval or issuance of building, grading or other permits, environmental
assessments, environmental impact reports, conditional use permits, tentative maps or parcel
maps in the area of the city identified as the ‘landslide moratorium area’ as outlined in red on
the landslide moratorium map on file in the office of the director . . . .”
Your request to install cameras and related equipment may require the issuance of a
building permit which, under the terms of th e moratorium ordinance, cannot be issued in any
event.
Very truly yours,
William W. Wynder
of ALESHIRE & WYNDER, LLP
Copies: (v/e-mail only)
Mr. Ara Mihranian, AICP,
City Manager;
Mr. Ken Rukavina,
Community Development Director;
Mr. Octavio Silva,
Deputy Community Development Director & Planning Manager
B-2