Different views of Point

Paul Clinton

A feud brewing inside the gates of one of the city’s ritzier

condominium communities has spilled over into the courts as a

breakaway faction of homeowners battle to unseat their president.

Attorneys for homeowners leading the coup scored their third legal

victory Tuesday, when an Orange County Superior Court judge denied

the homeowner association’s attempt to silence its members.

“Our clients have been sued twice now,” attorney Philip Ashman

sad. “We believe all those legal actions are meritless.”

Attorneys with the Villa Point Condominium Assn. on Tuesday filed

a request for a restraining order against about 20 homeowners who won

their own victory last week when a judge threw out a prior

association suit against them.

The two factions filed dueling lawsuits earlier this year after

association President Peter Kontos began a landscaping project at the

228-unit higher-end complex.

During a March 4 hearing, Superior Court Judge David Chaffee said

Kontos’ reign as president has resembled “something akin to what you

might find in some banana republic.”

Kontos, who maintains an unlisted number, could not be reached

Tuesday. His attorney, Dean Smart, did not return calls.

Beginning at the tail end of 2002, the homeowners allege, Kontos

began a landscaping overhaul that haschanged the character of the

Italian villa-styled condo complex.

In October, the group, led by Martha Church, Susan Thomas and

several others circulated a questionnaire asking residents if they

would support recalling Kontos and two other Villa Point board

members. They received about 80 postcards supporting such an action.

At the time, Kontos began circulating a glossy brochure that

showed a new guard post. Shortly afterward, Kontos began tearing out

sidewalks and yanking out bougainvillea trees, so he could plant

roses, Japanese maples and other landscaping that doesn’t fit with

the complex’s architectural motif, Thomas said.

On Jan. 8, the homeowners were surprised to learn that Kontos, via

a lawsuit from the association, accused the rogue homeowners of

fraudulently obtaining signatures supporting the recall.

On March 4, Chaffee tossed that suit out of court, agreeing with

Ashman’s claim that Kontos’ legal action constituted a frivolous

Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, or SLAPP, suit.

Kontos, Church said, has created an atmosphere of distrust in the

community with legal bullying.

“He has created a lot of fear here,” Church said. “We got to the

point where we were using our cell phones because he seemed to know

what we were doing before we did it.”

On March 4, the association agreed to set a meeting for Friday to

hold a recall vote but promptly canceled it several days later,

Church said.

The issue bubbled up again over the weekend, when Kontos ordered

workers to remove six pine trees at the complex’s entry gate.

“The thing that upsets the homeowners is that there were no

details published about this,” homeowner Greg Cleveland said.

Kontos headed to court Tuesday to secure a restraining order to

prevent the homeowners from interfering in that landscaping. Superior

Court Judge Warren Siegel denied the request.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.