Suit Seeking Homes at the VA West LA Campus May Go to Trial

A lawsuit from veterans challenging leases by West L.A.’s Department of Veterans Affairs’ campus to UCLA and a private school in favor of new housing for homeless vets could possibly go to trial.

U.S. District Judge David Carter denied motions to dismiss key parts of a class-action lawsuit that seeks to declare the leases illegal and force the VA to expedite housing for thousands of homeless veterans at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The lawsuit, filed last fall, seeks an order giving the VA six months to create 1,200 new homes on the nearly 400-acre West Los Angeles campus and lease another 2,500 apartments within a five-mile radius, plus provide supportive services.

The judge’s tentative ruling this week came after arguments by lawyers representing the veterans and the VA had caused him to “rethink the entire jurisprudence.” He gave the parties until Sept. 29 to respond to the tentative ruling before he makes it final.

The split decision, if made final, would dismiss several parts of the case based on jurisdiction, but retain two major allegations.

Carter wrote that he was inclined to uphold the veterans’ contention that the VA has a fiduciary duty to “evaluate management of leases or land use to ensure that they advance the purpose of providing housing and services that principally benefit veterans and their families.”

He would allow the veterans to pursue their cause of action alleging that leases to the Brentwood school and a company that operates a public parking lot breach that duty, outlined in the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016.

Carter dismissed other claims that several easements over the property for utilities and transportation violate the act.

If adopted, the ruling could lead to a trial over whether to invalidate leases under which UCLA and the Brentwood Academy have built sprawling athletic facilities on VA land.

Zachary Avallone, trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department, argued the leases served veterans by giving them exclusive access to facilities at specified times. Carter’s tentative ruling rejected that argument.

“Under a common-sense reading of the statute, leases for a private school’s athletic facilities and a parking lot for the general public are not designed to ‘principally benefit veterans and their families,’ even if veterans marginally benefit from these agreements,” Carter wrote.

Carter wrote that the federal government was granted the land in 1888 with the stipulation it “locate, establish, construct and permanently maintain” a branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which constituted a charitable trust to provide housing for the disabled veterans.

When Congress passed the West Los Angeles Leasing Act of 2016, he wrote, it assumed the government’s duty to enforce that trust.

Carter urged both parties to work out a deal to avoid a trial, but said he would schedule one for early next year if they don’t.

The lawsuit reprises an earlier one that ended with a 2015 agreement by the VA to build 1,200 units of housing on the 388-acre campus with a commitment to complete more than 770 by the end of last year. Only 54 of those units were completed. To date, 233 are available to vets.

— Dana Bartholomew