When retirees Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen ran out of cash to pay their authorized payments amid a yearslong battle with their householders affiliation, their attorneys agreed to push on with out pay.
Attorneys Terence and Mary Ann O’Hara — a San Jose husband-and-wife group who’ve been married for 37 years — agreed that serving to the couple whose lives had been upended in 2018 over an deserted artesian properly that sprang to life beneath their Santa Clara rental was the proper factor to do.
“Most normal people can’t afford to have a lawyer fight for them, but Doug and Sherry are just salt of the earth kind of people,” Mary Ann O’Hara mentioned. “There was no way we could have abandoned them without following through with everything.”
However the O’Haras’ choice got here with sacrifices — they maxed out their line of credit score, turned away potential shoppers, borrowed cash from their son and dipped into their retirement financial savings to tackle what Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom Choose JoAnne McCracken described as a “David and Goliath case.”
In February, McCracken dominated that the Rancho Palma Grande Householders Affiliation and former HOA president Steve Moritz “engaged in extensive deception,” violated the Elder Abuse Act and breached state legal guidelines regulating HOAs. The HOA will likely be accountable for greater than $1.8 million in damages owed to Ridley and Shen.
Now, the O’Haras might quickly be getting their due. McCracken this month ordered the HOA to pay them $6 million in lawyer charges.
Throughout the July 9 courtroom listening to, McCracken mentioned that she “does not order this amount of money lightly.”
“Part of the reason the fees are very high in this case is we’re talking about the extent to which false statements, conduct that should never have happened by the HOA had to be unraveled,” the decide mentioned, in line with a transcript of the continuing.
Ridley, 85, bought the three-bedroom, two-bath rental in 1991 and lived there for greater than twenty years, finally renting it out in 2015. The rental earnings was alleged to function a retirement nest egg for him and Shen, however issues took a flip in April 2018 when their tenant noticed a mirrored image in a ground grate from water that had amassed within the crawl house.
They later discovered that the water was flowing from a more-than-400-feet deep properly situated beneath the lounge. Related artesian wells was once sprinkled all through Silicon Valley and supplied irrigation for orchards and farms when the area was higher often known as the Valley of Coronary heart’s Delight. Most of the wells had been decommissioned many years in the past earlier than being developed over. The one beneath Ridley and Shen’s rental, although, had been forgotten.
What ensued was a bitter wrestle between the couple and the HOA over the supply of the issue. For a number of years, the HOA maintained that its information confirmed the water wasn’t attributable to a properly, however as a substitute was as a result of a excessive floor water desk.
In the meantime, foul odors flooded the rental and mould grew as a sump pump that Ridley put in tried to maintain up, dumping 15,000 to 17,000 galloons of water a day into the yard. At trial, Moritz, the previous HOA president, testified that he falsely claimed there wasn’t mould within the rental when he advised Ridley that the rental was liveable.
SANTA CLARA, CA – JANUARY 22: A sump pump works additional time beneath the ground boards of Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen’s residence in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, January 22, 2020, pumping out water from a sinkhole that probably developed on the positioning of an previous deserted properly from Thirties. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – JANUARY 22: Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen are preventing their house owner’s affiliation in courtroom over a sinkhole that has opened up beneath their residence in Santa Clara, Calif., probably as a result of a leaking, Thirties-era properly. They survey the positioning, Wednesday, January 22, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Doug Ridley, left, greets his attorneys Terence O’Hara second from left, and Mary Ann O’Hara, proper, alongside together with his spouse Sherry Shen heart, of their condominium on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. The couple was simply awarded $1.8 million after a years lengthy courtroom battle over an deserted artesian properly beneath their residence. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – JANUARY 22: A warning signal is posted to the entrance door of Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen’s residence in Santa Clara, Calif., the place a sinkhole probably attributable to a leaking, 1930’s-era properly opened beneath it, Wednesday, January 22, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
Doug Ridley, left, and his spouse Sherry Shen, proper, stand a room of their condominium on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Santa Clara, Calif. The couple was simply awarded $1.8 million after a years lengthy courtroom battle over an deserted artesian properly beneath their residence. (Aric Crabb/Bay Space Information Group)
SANTA CLARA, CA – JANUARY 22: Diverted water flows into ivy after being pumped out of a sinkhole within the residence of Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, January 22, 2020. The retired couple is preventing their residence proprietor affiliation over injury they are saying is prompted from the exercise of an previous deserted properly from Thirties. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
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SANTA CLARA, CA – JANUARY 22: A sump pump works additional time beneath the ground boards of Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen’s residence in Santa Clara, Calif., Wednesday, January 22, 2020, pumping out water from a sinkhole that probably developed on the positioning of an previous deserted properly from Thirties. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
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The bottom beneath the crawl house in the lounge finally collapsed right into a sinkhole, which was found in September 2019. A number of months later, in January of 2020, the HOA lastly reduce a gap within the ground above the sinkhole — a suggestion that they had acquired two years prior — and noticed the effervescent gap had “no discernible bottom,” in line with courtroom paperwork.
The properly was destroyed the next month and the opening in the lounge ground was closed. However 5 years later, the rental stays uninhabitable because the HOA has appealed an injunction ordering them to finish the development work. A decide with the Sixth District Courtroom of Attraction is predicted to listen to the matter subsequent month.
Ridley and Shen have but to see the $1.8 million in damages that the HOA and Moritz owe them, and the O’Haras acknowledge that the $6 million they’re due is unlikely to hit their checking account anytime quickly.
In an interview on the Santa Clara rental, Terence O’Hara mentioned he knew early on that the case was prone to devour some huge cash and assets. To start with, Ridley requested him simply how far they’d be prepared to take the case if the HOA continued denying accountability.
“The O’Haras are all in,” Terence mentioned he advised Ridley. “What that means is we’re going to take it all the way no matter what.”
Over the past seven years, the O’Haras and a few of their colleagues who helped alongside the best way have spent upwards of 6,400 billable hours on the case. However the precise quantity is probably going a lot greater.
“We’re out for dinner, we’re talking about the case. We’re watching TV, we’re talking about the case. We’re driving up to see our new grandson, we’re talking about the case,” Terence mentioned. “We don’t bill for any of that time. Really the amount of hours and thought devoted to this are 50-to-100% more than what we submitted to the court.”
Mary Ann O’Hara mentioned that she’s hopeful they’ll come to a mediation with the HOA with out having to struggle any additional.
“I hope they pay the judgement quickly,” she mentioned. “I hope that maybe this case will lead to some changes in the laws, which would make it easier for homeowners to have the homeowners association take care of what they’re supposed to take care of promptly.”
It’s unclear how the HOA, which oversees greater than 100 condos in Rancho Palma Grande, will discover the cash to pay Ridley, Shen and the O’Haras. The $1.8 million is accruing 10% curiosity every month, and Terence mentioned that it’s possible the HOA might owe extra in attorneys charges by the appeals course of.
Bobby Dale Sims Jr. and John Hill — attorneys for the HOA and Moritz — didn’t reply to a request for remark. In a 2022 courtroom submitting, although, the legal professionals mentioned that the HOA is insured by Philadelphia Insurance coverage beneath a coverage that has a $2 million restrict. The coverage, nonetheless, doesn’t cowl the price of lawyer’s charges or bills that stem from the abatement, therapy or remediation of fungi or micro organism.
Terence credit a lot of their success within the case to Mary Ann, who he referred to as “one of the best lawyers around.” He describes himself because the hammer, a “more rough and tumble” lawyer who made his identify preventing development circumstances. Mary Ann, he mentioned, is extra of a scalpel of their authorized duo with the flexibility to dig by paperwork with a positive tooth comb and untangle fraud.
“Mary Ann can put on all the hats, and that’s rare,” Terence mentioned.
“That’s nice,” mentioned Mary Ann, smiling at her husband’s praise. “We are a good team.”
