MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2005
Volume 4, Issue 291
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
Legal fees no drop in bucket
DAILY LOTTERY SUPER LOTTO 8 30 39 42 46 Meganumber: 8 Jackpot: $9 Million
Contaminated water fight leaves city, lawyers at odds
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY
CHUCK
SHEPARD
BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON Daily Press Staff Writer
■ At Northern Ireland’s Belfast Zoo in September, Phoebe the chimp and two others managed to climb out of their compound, and armed security guards had to come round them up. In an effort to frighten the animals into submission, they fired shots into the air, and according to the reporter for The Guardian newspaper, the chimps not only became docile at the sound of gunfire, but they put their hands up. ■ In September, veterinarian Jon-Paul Carew of the Imperial Point Animal Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., surgically removed a 13-inch-long serrated knife that had been swallowed by Elsie, a 6-month-old St. Bernard puppy, and the dog is now doing fine. The blade was lodged between her esophagus and stomach for about four days and was detected by an X-ray. Said Elsie’s owner, “She wants to eat everything and anything.”
CITY HALL — When lawyers hired by City Hall were grappling with 18 oil companies for contaminating Santa Monica’s drinking water, they ran up some hefty bills. Among them were meals at the
city’s most expensive restaurants, stays at upscale hotels and trips by private jet. The attorneys’ efforts to get taxpayers to foot the bills, which have been buried in a pile of expenses that nearly total $1 million, have raised eyebrows — and more legal fees.
What’s more, the contingency fee arrangement in the multi-million dollar case is in dispute, though the case was largely successful, resulting in a settlement the tactics of which are also in dispute. The two sides are set for trial in March. At issue is just how much City Hall owes its team of
See PROFILES, page 10
See PLANE FLAP, page 9
This one’s for the farmers, you dig?
Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press Musicians from the Jason Myers Quartet entertain the throngs on hand at Sunday’s Farmer’s Market on Main Street. Dan Weinstein (right) jams on his sousaphone while Dan Mohr accompanies on his tuba.
Horoscopes Flip through messages, Scorpio
2
Surf Report Water temperature: 64°
3
Local Tell someone who cares
4
National Back in black
5
Local Know before you go
Classifieds Ad space odyssey
14-15
DBAs Mind your business
15-18
People in the News ...
BY JASMIN PERSCH
7 13
...
COMMUNITY PROFILES IS A WEEKLY SERIES THAT APPEARS EACH MONDAY AND DELVES INTO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE, WORK AND PLAY IN SANTA MONICA.
Watching history unfold for 104 years Special to the Daily Press
Comics Strips tease
COMMUNITYPROFILES |
Until two years ago, Pedro Galvan could typically be seen sitting with his wife Alejandra on their porch, hand in hand, her head on his shoulder. Today, Galvan sits on the porch with his dog. Alejandra passed away three months before turning 104. Losing loved ones is something
Daily Press Staff Writer
the centenarian has had to come to grips with, something that goes hand in hand with embarking on a second century of life. In addition to his wife, Galvan has outlived two of his children, his parents and his brothers and sisters. Likely the oldest person in Santa Monica, Galvan will celebrate his 104th birthday on
See LEGAL FEES, page 8
Today is the 290th day of 2005. There are 75 days left in the year.
INDEX
BY CAROLYN SACKARIASON
CITY HALL — A lawyer battling City Hall over pricey expenses being billed to taxpayers has denied that those bills ever included the use of a private jet, according to documents in the bitter dispute. The disagreement comes in the wake of a settlement of City Hall’s lawsuit against 18 oil companies for contaminating the city’s drinking water. In the case, the city hired three outside law firms, all working on the basis they would share the fruits of the settlement. The city already has declined to pay some of the additional expenses lawyers have run up at expensive restaurants and hotels around town. But Marshall Grossman, a lawyer representing other lawyers who did the eating and drinking in the case, disputes a city contention that the expenses included use of a private jet used by one of the law firms involved in the case, Baron & Budd. The case has shed light on a culture clash between highpowered attorney lifestyles and the expectations of a City Hall charged with protecting taxpayers’ money. At issue is $88,543 worth of travel expenses the city claims was billed by lawyer Fred Baron, who used a chartered private jet. Though Grossman denied the billing, a copy of the 2002 invoice shows $88,543 in air travel charges. Grossman also claimed that city attorneys routinely dined on the contingency lawyers’ dime at Le Merigot Hotel and other high-end spots. Those dimes have now come back to haunt the city in the form of bills the contingency lawyers want taxpayers to pay. “They had champagne tastes when it came to eating with the
TODAY IN HISTORY
On Oct. 17, 1777, British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War. In 1919, the Radio Corporation of America was created. In 1931, mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. (He was released in 1939.) In 1933, Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. In 1941, the U.S. destroyer Kearney was torpedoed by a German submarine off the coast of Iceland; 11 people died. In 1945, Col. Juan Peron staged a coup, becoming absolute ruler of Argentina.
Aircraft dispute adds fuel to the MtBE case
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