Final Lawsuit in Tree-Sitter Case Dismissed

A judge dismissed a developer’s lawsuit Thursday against an environmental group that had hired a man to sit in a Santa Clarita Valley tree for 71 days. The dismissal brought an end to a series of legal actions stemming from the widely publicized protest.

In the suit, John Laing Homes had accused the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment with trespassing. The developer also had accused the group of libel for its allegation that Laing Homes had violated an earlier agreement to save the tree.

The group hired activist John Quigley to sit in the tree to keep it from being cut down as part of a road-widening project in Stevenson Ranch, just west of Santa Clarita. A court order forced Quigley down in January.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John P. Shook, who dismissed the case, also recently dismissed the environmental group’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against Laing, which accused the developer of violating a 1999 agreement to save the tree.

Laing had also sued Quigley, accusing him of trespassing, but that case was dropped earlier this week.

In a prepared statement, Laing’s regional president, Bill Rattazzi, said the environmental group had “misrepresented” Laing’s concern for the oak tree, which the company is now planning to move a few hundred yards down the road.

The environmental group’s president, Lynne Plambeck, and Quigley have both said that moving the ancient oak could kill it.

The group could appeal or refile its lawsuit, but its attorney, Donald W. Ricketts, said a decision had not been made