Suit Against Pacific Lumber Is Dismissed
SAN FRANCISCO — A judge has thrown out a controversial lawsuit filed against Pacific Lumber Co. by Humboldt County prosecutors who alleged that the company fraudulently obtained state permission to cut many millions of dollars in timber on environmentally sensitive land.
In a ruling filed Tuesday, Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Richard L. Freeborn did not address the merits of the allegation. But he agreed with Pacific Lumber that there was no legal basis for the suit, because the company's conduct during the logging permit process was protected from civil action.
The ruling is the latest chapter in a dispute that has lasted for more than a decade over how much logging Pacific Lumber is entitled to do on its own land, thousands of acres of north coast forest that hold many of the last ancient redwood trees still in private hands.
Dist. Atty. Paul Gallegos said Wednesday that his office was seriously considering an appeal. The judge, he said, sent a signal that Pacific was "totally immune from lying. People out there are getting permits all over the place, thinking they have an obligation to tell the government the truth," Gallegos said. "This is not the law, in my opinion, and if am wrong, it is an outrage because it rewards deceit."
The lawsuit, which sought several hundred millions of dollars, divided the county and prompted an unsuccessful bid last year to recall Gallegos -- an effort largely bankrolled by Pacific Lumber. Filed in 2003, the suit pits residents who view the timber company as indispensable to the local economy against those who believe it is over-logging its vast holdings of valuable redwoods and Douglas fir, endangering fish and wildlife, and causing erosion that has damaged adjacent property.
Defeat would have been a major blow for Pacific Lumber, a 140-year-old firm that is financially troubled and has downsized and sold off assets since it was acquired in the mid-1980s by Maxxam Corp., a Texas firm controlled by financier Charles Hurwitz.
"We are pleased with this decision," said company spokesman Chuck Center. "We did not think it would take this long. We always thought it was frivolous and political as well."
The lawsuit accused the company of lying to state regulators during the historic 1999 deal that created the Headwaters Forest Preserve. As part of the more than $400-million transaction, Pacific Lumber transferred 7,000 acres of virgin timber to the federal and state governments and agreed to logging restrictions on its remaining 200,000 acres to protect wildlife habitat.
