After his home flooded a second time, San Diego resident seeks $700,000 from city

A homeowner on Beta Street, the southeastern San Diego neighborhood that was flooded by the Jan. 22 storm, has filed a legal claim against the city asserting he suffered $700,000 in damages.

Gregory Montoya filed the claim on Wednesday. It is likely among the first of many that the city will face from homeowners on Beta Street and the surrounding southeastern San Diego neighborhoods hard-hit by the flooding.

A claim is the first step before filing a lawsuit for monetary damages against a government entity. The city has 45 days to accept or reject the claim. If it formally rejects it or takes no action, Montoya is free to go to court and file a formal lawsuit.

The claim blames the city’s poor maintenance of the Chollas Creek channel and the berms that are aside the channel for the damage to Montoya’s property in the Southcrest community. It also points the finger at the city’s inadequate storm drainage system in the area.

“City failed to maintain Chollas Creek,” the claim that was filed by attorney Evan Walker reads. “City failed to maintain the berms. City failed to maintain storm drain system.”

This is not the first time Montoya has sued the city over the flooding issues in his neighborhood. He was the lead plaintiff in a 2019 suit filed by several homeowners over the same problem — severe flooding after a December 2018 rain storm inundated their properties.

The homeowners claimed then that the construction of the 2.6-acre Southcrest Trails Neighborhood Park made the problem worse by creating an embankment on the south side of the street, next to a dirt alley. 

When it rained hard, the suit said, water funneled down the embankment into the unpaved alley, which quickly flowed into the Beta Street homes. 

That suit settled in 2022, with the city paying out $209,000. At the time the city said the park construction did not contribute to the problem. It also argued its experts concluded the Beta Street homes were safe because they were set back and elevated from the street, and they would not be impacted by a 100-year storm — or, a storm that has a 1 in 100 chance of occurring in a given year. 

The December 2018 storm, the city argued then, was a 1,000-year storm — or, a storm that has a 1 in 1,000 chance of occurring in a given year.

The city has cited the same reason as it pushed back against criticism of its preparation and response to the latest storms. At a news conference after the Jan. 22 storm, Mayor Todd Gloria cited the “unprecedented” deluge and said “there is not a drainage system that would’ve been able to accommodate all of that.”

Nearly 3 inches of rain rolled into the region last week, causing devastating flooding as the storm overwhelmed the city’s aging stormwater system. Officials project about $2.2 billion is needed for stormwater upgrades over the next five years, but $1.6 billion of that remains unfunded.

San Diego County officials said at least three deaths were confirmed to have been caused by the flood, and that more than 2,500 reports totaling more than $125 million in damage to homes and personal property have been made.

Evan Walker, the lawyer for Montoya who also brought the previous lawsuit, said the city has to be held responsible for the damage.

“We’re bringing this claim, and likely a lawsuit, because homes were destroyed, things were ruined, lives were upended,” Walker said. “We hope the city will compensate its residents for what they lost, and fix the drainage problems the city has ignored for years.”

Walker said a steady stream of residents has been contacting him, and he is working with a Los Angeles law firm specializing in mass torts, a type of lawsuit where a large number of individuals who have suffered some kind of injury or damage from the same event. They are similar to class action lawsuits. 

It was unclear if this is the first claim filed in the wake of the storm. A spokesperson for the city’s Risk Management office said the city has received several claims so far, including Montoya’s. He said the city does not comment on pending claims.