City Smart / How to thrive in the urban environment of Southern California. : Looking for Legal Loopholes : Attorney Randall Stamen specializes in lawsuits involving trees. And his practice is, well, growing.

Leaf law is growing. That’s why Southern California’s first tree lawyer is opening a branch office.

“Nobody takes these cases seriously,” says Randall Stamen. “Trees just aren’t at the top of the list of importance for lawyers. But they are on mine.”

When Stamen argues in court about life and limb, he’s not talking personal injury. When he urges a jury to look at the root of the problem before reaching a verdict, it’s not hyperbole.

When he talks about money growing on trees, he means it.

“It’s odd for an attorney to say, but when I look at a tree I don’t always see dollar signs on the branches,” Stamen quickly explains. “But I do see a lot of lawsuits up there.”

Where trees are involved, legal writs can fly like autumn leaves in a Santa Ana wind. Cars crash into trees; trees crash into cars. Trees topple because of over-pruning; trees topple from under-pruning.

Stamen--a combination arborist-attorney who is one of two such specialists in the country--is prepared to argue either side.

“Nearly every lawyer has handled at least one tree case,” said Stamen, 28, of Riverside. “People don’t realize how expensive trees are.”

State law allows a property owner to collect triple damages from someone found guilty of maliciously damaging a tree. And a 1990 Beverly Hills case determined that a tree’s value isn’t merely the cost of a replacement sapling purchased at the neighborhood garden shop. That case centered around a tree-pruning dispute involving entertainment mogul David Geffen and owners of a next-door parcel on Calle Vista Drive. Allegedly worried about preserving their view, the neighboring property owners hired a Reseda tree trimmer to prune trees in a ravine between their lot and a home Geffen was purchasing.

Geffen’s side won a $1.2-million Superior Court judgment after he testified that the chopping took place on his trees and that it ruined his new home’s privacy. The verdict was overturned and a $700,000 settlement was reached after a Court of Appeal decided that some of the trees were cut before Geffen’s representatives closed escrow.

Still, the case showed how much eight pines and four eucalyptuses can be worth.

“Trees are an emotional issue. If the jury is charged up, it can really get out of hand,” said Encino lawyer Thomas Warden, who represented the tree trimmer.

Said Gerald Sauer, a Westside lawyer who sued on behalf of Geffen: “When you get people living in the hills and in Beverly Hills, they’re going to go in and cut trees if that’s what’s necessary to preserve their view. It’s unfortunate, but they are people used to getting what they want.”

Clashes over trees and views have figured in more than half of the 50 tree cases that Stamen has taken on during his three years as a lawyer.

“Often people have either planted a tree themselves and watched it grow for years, or they bought the property to begin with because of the tree,” he said. “People get passionate about trees.”

Many hillside residents get passionate over their view, too. But California law does not give a person a right to a view--although some subdivision deed restrictions or local ordinances do, he said.

A view of Benedict Canyon was at the center of a recent showdown between Benedict Canyon neighbors Wende Mate and Mehrdad Moghavem.

Mate sued Moghavem, alleging that his neighbor had turned two large Monterey pines behind his Hutton Drive home into “telephone poles” by lopping off branches to improve his view.

The lawsuit asserted that the pruning caused a beetle infestation in the trees--valued by Mate at $99,660. Citing the triple-damages law, Stamen sought a judgment three times that amount.

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Moghavem contended that his gardeners “unintentionally” entered Mate’s back yard and suggested that Mate’s losses were closer to $1,500.

The dispute was resolved when Superior Court Judge Bruce R. Geernaert traveled to Benedict Canyon to take a look at the pruning job for himself. Later, he helped hammer out a settlement between the two neighbors over coffee and pastries at Moghavem’s patio table.

Although he fell short of triple damages, Stamen said Mate’s efforts were worth it. Moghavem must pay for 10 new 24-inch box Canary Island pines between the two houses, install irrigation lines and pay for their maintenance for five years. Additionally, he must pay an equal amount to Mate--probably about $8,000, according to lawyer Hamid Joseph Nourman, who represented Moghavem.

Neither Mate nor Moghavem could be reached for comment. Explained Nourmand: “These are very difficult to be involved in.”

You don’t have to tell that to George Lewis. He pleaded with 40 lawyers to take his case after a tree branch fell onto his car as he drove through Beverly Hills in 1991. “They said if I’d been crippled they’d have been interested in representing me,” Lewis said. “They said the city would just claim that the limb falling was an act of God.”

The retired Cheviot Hills plastics manufacturer was driving west on Santa Monica Boulevard near Camden Drive when the 35-foot eucalyptus limb smashed onto his 1980 Cadillac, causing him head and chest injuries.

When a tree trimmer finally mentioned Stamen’s unusual law specialty, Lewis headed off to Riverside to find him. Stamen sued Beverly Hills, alleging that its tree trimmers had improperly “topped” the tree to cause surviving branches to grow heavy enough to snap and fall. The lawsuit was settled last week for $36,000. Daniel Barer, a lawyer for the city, refused to comment on the case.

Stamen said a 1993 state law now prohibits public agencies from topping trees. Tree trimmers instead must thin out foliage by pruning.

That’s not the only recent change in tree law. In a case sure to have an impact on homeowners, a 1994 Court of Appeal ruling limits the amount of pruning that property owners can do to neighbors’ tree branches or roots that extend into their yard.

According to the Illinois-based International Society of Arboriculture, Stamen is one of only two tree law specialists in the country. Victor Merullo of Columbus, Ohio, is the other.

Stamen said he is sinking roots in Northern California by opening a satellite office in Elk Grove, a small town midway between the Bay Area and the forests of the Sierra.

Trees grow bigger up there. Maybe tree cases do too.