Custom Home gone wrong at San Manuel

In 2003 a Soils Engineer I have know for many years gave me a call regarding a project on the San Manuel Indian Reservation. It involved a custom home that was being built that was having problems with a soil collapse at a utility trench.

When I went to the site, the homeowner started telling me all the problems he had with both the contractor building the home and the firm he had hired to oversee the project. On the reservation, there is no building inspector so it was common then to hire an engineering firm to act as the building official and oversee the project.

Upon inspection, I ended up writing a 50 plus page report that eventually became the basis that their attorney used in their lawsuit. It ended up in a jury trial in Orange County that I testified in. After my testimony and before the end of the trial, the other side settled to avoid the possible verdict that the attorney said was becoming inevitable. It was one of the largest investigations I have ever done and I was responsible for hiring and overseeing other experts including a structural engineer to evaluate the structure.

The homeowners were not only happy with my work on that case, they also hired me to investigate problems with their newly built custom home and pool in Orange County.