Media Articles on Law Firm

Deputies' Group Loses Lease Ruling

The Sacramento Bee Final
Thursday, December 28, 1989
By Steve Gibson

The Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs' Association owes a couple more than $90,000 for walking away form an office lease and more than four years unpaid rent, a Superior Court arbitrator has ruled.

However, association president Wendell Phillips said Wednesday that the ruling is not binding and that his group will take the case to trial.

"I always figured we would," he said.

The arbitration award consists of $74,716 in damages plus interest, in addition to legal an other expenses totaling more than $17,000 plus interest.

The couple, George and Gale Hamatani, retired farmers who live in Clarksburg, had sued the deputies' association in Superior Court on April 26 for breach of contract and abandonment.

In a cross-complaint filed with the court May 31, the association, which on Feb. 1 moved out of offices owned by the Hamatanis at 1515 30th St., claimed that its computer equipment was damaged because of "faulty and inappropriate wiring" in the building.

The association also claimed in its cross-complaint that the Hamatanis had failed to repair the conditions.

But according to court documents, the repairs had been completed by the Hamatanis' attorney, Clement J. Kong, the faulty interior wiring that caused the computer problems apparently had been installed in the early 1980s by a contractor hired by the association.

According to court documents, several interior walls also were installed in the association's second-floor office space.

Kong said in an interview that all of the construction work was performed without the required city permits.

Further, Kong said, electrical wiring installed by the deputies' contractor fails to meet building code standards and was not checked by city building inspectors as required by law.

"He can say anything he wants," Phillips said Wednesday. "Lets see what he (Kong) can prove. We hired com contractor to do it. That was his (the contractor's) responsibility. I'm not a building contractor."

A check of city building department records by The Bee showed that no permits were issued for any interior wiring or construction during the early 1980s when Phillips said the work was done.

In an Oct. 24 deposition, Phillips testified that he couldn't recall the exact cost of the work, the name of the contractor hired for the project or the name of the accountant who kept the association's books.

During the deposition, in an attempt to determine exactly how much the improvements cost, Kong asked Phillips if he could produce checks and records of expenditures for the improvements to the building.

Phillips said he could not recall and that the association doesn't "keep anything usually beyond five years."

He said that "on at least two occasions" between 1982 and 1989 "we rented a commercial shredder and we took probably 40 or 50 bags of shredded records out of there.

"A lot of our information has got what we consider to be 'confidential' on it, peace officer addresses and things like that so we don't throw it away," Phillips said in the deposition.

"When we get rid of it, we shred it. And the documents that you have mentioned most probably met that fate, if you will, if they were older than five years old."

Kong said his clients had offered to settle with the deputies' gourd for $55,000, but they refused.

The award in favor of the Hamatanis was signed Dec. 21 by arbitrator William H. Lally, a retired Superior Court judge.

Phillips said he complained constantly about the electrical power fluctuations that he said damaged the association's computers.

"We told the landlords about it and told the landlords about it and finally said, 'I've had enough of this; we're hitting the road.' So we got out of there and broke the lease."

Kong said his clients were upset by what he described as bullying tactics and "snarly, insulting letters" sent to them by Phillips.

"There's no evidence that the Hamatanis refused to make the repairs," Kong said. "They had the work done before the association moved out."

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