A harbor area activist filed an appeal Friday in an attempt to revive a federal lawsuit alleging that the Port of Los Angeles misappropriated $1.2 billion in government funds to build a giant cargo terminal for the world's largest shipping line.
Stanley D. Mosler of Rancho Palos Verdes is challenging decisions by U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, who dismissed the false-claims case in August, saying that Mosler no longer had an attorney and that he was unqualified as a layperson to handle a lawsuit on behalf of the United States.
A few weeks after the decision, Mosler hired a lawyer, Alan Gutman, but Otero refused to reinstate the case, saying it was too late.
Otero noted in his ruling that Mosler had been warned earlier that he should obtain counsel.
Mosler was represented for three years by attorney Milford Dahl, who bowed out in February 2005, saying the case would be too costly for him to pursue. Mosler then proceeded on his own, hoping to get the case to trial.
"The elusive quality in Judge Otero's order is justice," Mosler said. "The dismissal was not on the merits but because I could not afford to match the port's spending in legal fees. I trust that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will rule that having money is not a necessary element to access our federal courts."
Filed in March 2002, Mosler's case alleged that port officials had engaged in a "bait-and-switch" maneuver when they shifted long-standing plans to relocate crude oil and other hazardous shipments to a man-made island that would be built away from populated areas to improve harbor safety.
Mosler said in his suit that port officials decided to turn the island into a massive container facility for Maersk Inc., leaving only 15 acres -- instead of hundreds of acres -- for petroleum and chemical terminals.
At issue was whether the port violated federal agreements to build the so-called energy island project and misappropriated $108.6 million in federal grants and nearly $1.1 billion in harbor revenue to construct what is now known as Pier 400, which was completed in 2004.
In their defense, port officials said the plans for an energy island changed because there was no market for oil and petroleum terminals. Tenants resisted the idea as too costly while crude oil and other hazardous shipments were declining.
