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.
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