The witness list was long-43 witnesses actually testified in court. There were over 200 pieces of evidence and 120 hours of testimony. There were many expert witnesses-some better than others.
In order for the Plaintiff to prove their case they had to first establish that the slide started on City controlled property rather than either the Guthrie property or the Wilson/Wood property. They first tried to establish that the slide was a rotational or rotational/translational landslide-which would start at the top of the slide mass versus a pure translational slide which would start down slope and most likely at the bottom, which would have been on the Guthrie property. See this link for information on landslide types. Http To do this they brought on expert witnesses in Geotechnical Engineering. The experts’ theory was that due to a road improvement project on the uphill road, Hillside Avenue, done in 2001, the loading on the uphill slope was increased, and that, along with an unusually heavy winter rainy season, destabilized the slope which caused an active landslide that resulted in a mud flow that occurred on April 12, 2006. Expert witnesses included a hydrologist-Thomas Burke and a geotechnical engineer-Craig Herzog. There were other supporting players that continually tried to reinforce the same message over and over and over again. The City claimed that it believed at the time that the slide was on private property and that they have/had no duty to inspect private property (which by statute they do not have such duty).
The Plaintiff then had to prove negligence by the City. They claimed that the City was aware that there was an active landslide as of March 31, 2006 and that they failed on several fronts, the primary one being that they did nothing to prevent it by neither tarping the hillside and the head scarp, nor covering the tension cracks in the roadway to prevent further infiltration of water, nor dewatering the slope with dewatering wells. The plaintiffs also claimed that the City did not have adequate policies and procedures in place to monitor landslides and that they failed to warn the Guthries about the impending danger. In order to prove negligence, the plaintiffs had to prove that the event was reasonably foreseeable. The term “event” became a point of contention. Event, as defined by the plaintiffs was the active land slide that resulted in a mud/debris flow that killed Walter Guthrie.
The City’s position is that they were aware of an active landslide on March 29th and called a soils engineer out to inspect the area, which occurred on March 31st. The geotechnical engineer, Scott Stephens, walked not only the City controlled right of way, but also went onto the Guthrie property and the Wilson/Wood property to adequately envision the movement of the hillside. At that time, the geotechnical engineer had an opinion that it was a slow moving creeping slide and that it was moving toward the ravine. The engineer saw the toe of the slope near the ravine, which was a seasonal water course and recommended to the City that a plastic pipe be placed in the ravine to collected run-off from upslope and direct it past the toe of slide so as not to destabilize the toe of the slide. Immediately following the site walk he and the field engineer, Richard Dudak, met with the City’s Director of Public Works, Wayne Bush, and recommended the installation of the pipe and that Walter Guthrie contact his own soils engineer to inspect his property. The Director of Public Works then called the homeowner (whom he had been trying to reach for two or three days) and recommended the installation of the pipe, keeping the watercourse clear and that he contact a geotechnical engineer. The City also installed horses on the down slope edge of Hillside Avenue because of concern that the slide would undermine the public road above the property and directed the Scott Stephens to prepare a proposal for stabilization of the roadway. The City did not tarp the hillside believing that it would be ineffectual and that the slide was on private property. Dudak continued to monitor the slide during the next two weeks and observed continued movement in the range of 4-6” a day. However, the City’s geotechnical engineer was never called again. Event, as defined by the City of Mill Valley, was the actual mud/debris flow that killed Walter Guthrie, not the active landslide. Landslides do not always result in mud/debris flows-in fact it is rather unusual. They contended that the mud flow was not foreseeable and therefore there was insufficient time to warn the Guthries.
Photo—Lisa Guthrie at the back of the home (master bedroom) where the mudslide hit the house)
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