Neighbors Win New Damages Over Professor’s Filthy Home

WESTMINSTER — For the second time in three years, neighbors of a Cal State Long Beach engineering professor in Huntington Harbor have won a major monetary award for the emotional distress they said they suffered because of the rubbish-strewn and malodorous state of the professor’s home.

With little fanfare, a Municipal Court judge who had taken the unusual steps of conducting an on-the-spot investigation of the neighbors’ complaints, awarded 33 Huntington Harbor residents judgments totaling $146,500. One of the complainants said he hoped that the latest awards, coming on top of 1994 awards totaling $140,000, would put them in a position to force the woman into a foreclosure sale of the house.

For nearly 15 years, neighbors have complained of human waste dumped in Elena Zagustin’s yard, six-foot-tall weeds around the property and numerous other health and fire code violations. Zagustin, a civil engineering professor at Cal State Long Beach, has denied that there has been anything amiss.

Within the last week, Zagustin’s home was boarded up by Huntington Beach fire and code enforcement officials who found sufficient evidence in the city’s separate investigation to declare hazardous conditions.

Judge Mary Fingal Erickson viewed photographs of the property and heard a litany of complaints from residents about its condition at hearings Nov. 10 and Monday before making her decision.

The judge also tried to inspect the property, but was only able to view it from outside a surrounding fence.

“The evidence by various plaintiffs shows they wanted her to clean it up, but she failed to do so,” Erickson said. “The Zagustin premises are offensive and caused residents mental distress and annoyance.”

“This is a victory but this is not about the money,” said David Flynn, who lives across the street from Zagustin and has led the neighborhood effort. “We’ve been dealing with this for too long. We want her out.”

Monday’s hearing was the culmination of the second round of complaints against Zagustin in Small Claims Court, where damages sought by an individual cannot exceed $5,000 and neither party may be represented by an attorney.

In 1994, 24 neighbors--some of them the same complainants in the latest court action--won similar judgments totaling $140,000.

The neighbors plan to keep filing the $5,000 small claims against Zagustin until the judgments they obtain total more than she can pay and she is forced to sell the property.

“If we have to go to court a third, fourth or fifth time we will do so,” Flynn said.

The judgments from the first round of claims remain unpaid. Zagustin transferred her properties to a living trust and has filed bankruptcy four times.

Brian Simon, a Los Angeles attorney representing the neighbors, said a Superior Court judge ruled last week that residents could collect the earlier judgments from Zagustin regardless of what name the properties are under.

“The bankruptcies delayed matters for several years, but now we will be moving toward a marshal’s sale to recover the judgments,” he said.

Zagustin showed up 20 minutes after Monday’s session had ended, saying she had a previous commitment that prevented her from attending.

She spent several minutes inside Erickson’s court determining what had transpired in her absence.

When asked what she thought of the judge’s ruling, the 61-year-old woman said, “I don’t know. The house is clean.” She declined to comment further. She has 30 days to appeal the decision.

Conditions at the home and other dwellings she has owned in Orange County first received public attention in 1988 when authorities removed Zagustin’s ailing father, sealed the home and jailed her on an outstanding warrant for code violations at a Santa Ana property.

“I’ve been living next door to her for 23 years and the place is a dump,” said Karen Goulette, one of the small claims plaintiffs. “I don’t allow my 14-month-old son to play near the home. It’s a fire hazard.”