San Diego Family Wins $26.5 Million After Caltrans Landlocked Their 58-Acre Otay Mesa Property

Phil and Marjorie Anderson bought land on Otay Mesa in 1974. By the time their four sons and their families inherited the business, Anderprises Inc. held a 58-acre parcel off Otay Mesa Road, east of Interstate 805 and south of Brown Field, in one of San Diego County's fastest-developing border corridors.

In the early 1990s, Caltrans announced plans to build Route 905 across the area, promising completion by 1997. The road was never built on that schedule, but the announcement hung over the property for years. It was not until 2006, nearly fifteen years after the original plans surfaced, that the agency formally moved to condemn a 2.8-acre strip along the edge of the parcel. Caltrans offered the Andersons $172,410 for those acres.

The family rejected the offer. The 2.8-acre strip was not just land along a freeway right-of-way. Taking it, the family argued, eliminated the only viable road access to the remaining 55 acres, leaving most of their property landlocked with no legal way in or out. Caltrans disputed that it owed any damages for the balance of the land. Under California eminent domain law, a condemnor must pay not only for what it takes but also for any resulting damage to the property left behind.

Vincent Bartolotta and Karen Frostrom of Thorsnes, Bartolotta and McGuire tried the case in San Diego Superior Court before Judge Patricia Cowett. After three weeks of evidence, the jury deliberated one day. On December 19, 2007, the panel returned a unanimous verdict for the Andersons. It set the value of the 2.8-acre parcel at $1.3 million, awarded $20.1 million for the loss of use of the landlocked remainder, and added $5.1 million for a lost business lease opportunity, reaching a total of $26.5 million. Caltrans' initial offer had been $172,410.

A Caltrans spokesman said the agency respected the verdict but disagreed with the assumptions supporting it, and indicated the agency would review its options. The Consumer Attorneys of San Diego recognized Frostrom with its Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award for the case in 2008. No published appellate opinion reducing the award has been identified.