UCLA sues LA Water and Power for $13 million in compensation

UCLA is seeking $13 million in compensation from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the utility’s insurers for the massive flooding damage caused by last year’s water main break on Sunset Boulevard, it was reported today.

A torrent of water filled lower floors of university parking garages, inundated sports fields and ruined Pauley Pavilion’s relatively new wooden basketball court in the flooding last July 29.

In a statement Thursday, UCLA said it has submitted the $13 million claim for damage to five buildings, several athletic fields and two garages and that the DWP has acknowledged its responsibility for those losses. All the repairs have been completed, including the replacement of the Pauley court, which was under as much of 8 inches of silty water during the flood, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Settlement talks between UCLA and the DWP are “complex, collegial and productive,” said a UCLA statement quoted by The Times, adding that “we are confident an equitable agreement will be reached.”

The rupture at the juncture of two corroded trunk lines under Sunset Boulevard sent an estimated 20 million gallons of water into the surrounding Westwood neighborhood, much of it downhill to the adjacent UCLA campus. It took the DWP about four hours to fully shut off the lines.

DWP officials Thursday said they expect a settlement will be reached with the utility, its insurance company and UCLA by year’s end without litigation, although they did not provide a specific response to whether they believed the $13 million claim was accurate, The Times reported.