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Construction Giant Tutor-Saliba Gets Hammered

LOS ANGELES-A Superior Court judge tosses out the company's lawsuit against the city's transit authority and says the contractor intentionally hid or destroyed important documents. The contractor could now face millions of dollars in damages and even be barred from future public works projects.

By David W. Myers | Updated on July 11, 2001

LOS ANGELES-In a remarkable move, a Superior Court judge has tossed out construction giant Tutor-Saliba Corp.’s six-year-old lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority and instead set the stage for the city to collect potentially millions of dollars from the company.

Judge Joseph Kalin ruled that Tutor-Saliba intentionally withheld some important documents and destroyed others during its long litigation with the MTA. The public transportation agency claims it was duped into paying millions to sham companies that Tutor-Saliba secretly controlled while working on the city’s Metro Rail subway project. Kalin told jurors that the only issue they must decide now is how much the contractor should be required to pay in monetary damages.

“There has been intentional withholding of documents and evidence in this case,” Kalin said from the bench late yesterday, as well as “intentional destruction of documents.” He also noted that Tutor-Saliba had ignored a series of court orders demanding that the papers be turned over to the MTA.

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