Dubrow

ORDER DENYING PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AND DISMISSING COMPLAINTS

Following the February 9, 1971 earthquake, President Nixon declared Los Angeles County a disaster area for purposes of making low interest loans available under the Disaster Relief Act to persons whose property had suffered damage. This relief program was administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). A damage survey of the disaster area was prepared by the Office of Emergency Preparedness and it was estimated that total damage would approximate 240 to 250 million dollars. Accordingly a loan pool of 242 million dollars was set up for use by the SBA in making loans to those whose applications that agency approved.

About March 1, 1971, the SBA began accepting applications for loans and it fixed February 29, 1972 as the deadline for the filing of such applications. During this one-year period approximately 83,000 applications were filed of which approximately 50,000 were received during the first nine months of the filing period.

Plaintiffs bring this civil action for injunctive relief on behalf of a putative class of some 30,000 people who applied for disaster relief loans during the last three months of the…