Murphy v. City of Sierra Madre CA2/2

BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs Deanna and Don Murphy’s first amended complaint (FAC) alleges that they purchased real property in the City of Sierra Madre (the City, or defendant) in 1985. The FAC states that plaintiffs purchased the property from a party who originally purchased the property from the City pursuant to a Disposition Development Agreement. The sale of the property to plaintiffs was approved by the city council, which imposed terms and conditions for development of the property. According to the FAC, the sale was consummated by means of an escrow agreement which expressly and impliedly called for proration of certain costs and expenses, and “should have but failed to include an express provision for transfer of the utilities.” When the City transferred utilities for the property, it incorrectly transferred an adjacent electrical meter that serviced a City- owned parking lot, resulting in plaintiffs being charged for the electricity used for the parking lot. Plaintiffs contend that the failure to properly transfer utilities was a breach of the “sales contract.” From 1985 until December 2010, around the time they discovered the error, plaintiffs paid for the parking lot’s…