Judge: Rehab suit ‘erroneous’

A federal judge has thrown out an activist group’s lawsuit against the largest rehab home operator in Newport Beach, with part of the court order preventing the group from suing the company again.

U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna called Concerned Citizens of Newport Beach’s lawsuit against the rehab home operator Sober Living by the Sea “erroneous.”

“We still have a long journey ahead,” said John Peloquin, the vice president of CRC Health Group, which owns Sober Living by the Sea. “I remain hopeful to get the Concerned Citizens part of the process.”

Concerned Citizens sued nearly all of the rehab home operators and Newport Beach. The group complained that a density of rehab homes in West Newport Beach and Balboa Peninsula had disrupted their neighborhoods. The group was hoping to garner further restrictions on the homes.

Concerned Citizens, shortly after dismissing lawsuits with all other rehab home operators and the city of Newport Beach, attempted to dismiss the lawsuit against Sober Living without prejudice about two weeks ago, leaving open the option of refiling the lawsuit.

Sober Living rejected that dismissal and asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, with prejudice, in its favor, which the court did this week.

Sober Living fought the initial attempt at a dismissal in an effort to block future attempts by Concerned Citizens, or others, that try to sue the company on the same issue, Peloquin said.

Sober Living officials also wanted the record to reflect that the lawsuit was baseless, he said.

“Concerned Citizens continues to believe that its action has merit; however, we agreed to dismiss the current action against CRC in recognition of the fact that the company is an 800-pound gorilla and that our resources would be better spent at this time directed toward another strategy,” the group’s leader Denys Oberman said.

The court’s decision asked each party to pay for its own attorneys fees, and Peloquin added that his company does not intend on pursuing the matter any further.

“We didn’t do this in an offensive way,” Peloquin said. “We did it to make sure the record was accurate.”

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].