By Shobha Rao

Photo by David Heller, Special to the Town Crier

Court hearings drained Michael Michaelian’s life’s savings

Los Altos resident Michael Michaelian has been fighting the justice system for more than 10 years now, and he’s out more than $1 million. But he’s not about to stop now.

It started innocuously enough. After 30 successful years in the construction industry, the retired Michaelian agreed to do rough-in construction for a bathroom remodel as a favor to a friend, he said. The project included plumbing and framing for the second story-edition to a house on Echo Drive in Los Altos. The job was completed in May 1988.

In early 1990, Danielle and Gary Ringen sued Michaelian and his company, alleging several violations, including the failure to install two, essential screw caps on the clean-out pipes. Had the screw caps been installed, the Ringens claimed, they would have prevented the spilling of “raw sewage covering hundreds of square feet of crawl space (under the master bedroom) with up to six inches of … sewage” in some areas.

The sewage, according to the Ringens, caused various health problems and serious structural damage to the addition. After years of protracted litigation and a change of attorneys, Michaelian was advised by his second attorney and former California congressman, Pete McCloskey, to settle the case for $130,000 in 1993.

But Michaelian had only begun to fight.

Soon afterwards, Michaelian, still using McCloskey as his attorney, sued his original attorney, Alfred Rinaldo, for malpractice. Michaelian claimed that Rinaldo had “not represented (him) properly” and was “uncooperative” with Michaelian’s requests.

During the course of the malpractice suit, McCloskey quit, claiming, according to Michaelian, mounting litigation costs that were going unpaid and a failure on his client’s part to satisfy the settlement costs of the Ringen lawsuit.

After representing himself for a few months, Michaelian contacted a group called Help Abolish Legal Tyranny (H.A.L.T.), and found Anthony Fritz, an attorney in San Francisco.

Fritz said he took Michaelian’s case because judging from the extensive court documents and astronomical legal fees, “I felt like something was very wrong.” Fritz called the case “hugely combative,” and said that Michaelian may not have been “fully aware of how expensive it was going to be for him.”

Fritz took the Michaelian vs. Rinaldo malpractice case to trial.

Michaelian ended up losing his case against Rinaldo in 1994 and agreed to pay him $126,000, in addition to legal costs.

A few months later, Michaelian sued again for malpractice. This time, the defendant was Fritz.

Fritz counter-claimed, alleging that Michaelian owed him $15,000 in legal fees. Both parties eventually settled.

But this was not the end of Michaelian’s troubles.

In 1995, Rinaldo sued Michaelian for malicious prosecution.

Representing himself, Michaelian filed a counter-claim, alleging fraud, deception and collusion on Rinaldo’s part.

In response, Rinaldo requested summary judgment and $100,000 in damages, claiming res judicata, or the doctrine that states a matter settled in court may not be raised again.

With the help of his new attorney, Mark Lee, Michaelian claimed probable cause to sue Rinaldo and the presiding judge agreed, denying Rinaldo’s request for summary judgment. This case also settled, with Michaelian agreeing to pay Rinaldo $5,000 and being prohibited from involving Rinaldo in any further litigation.

This most recent agreement, reached in 1999, was the final one in Michaelian’s labyrinth through the American judicial system.

As the legal costs deepened, Michaelian said, he has “lost a home in Santa Rosa and Cisco stock that would’ve been worth millions now.”

He also lost his wife, Vera, to illness in 1998.

Still, Michaelian is undaunted. He has written letters pleading his case, claiming he has been the victim of a “legal Mafia,” to the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Department of Justice and the Forensic Pathology Unit for the County of Santa Cruz, claiming one of the county pathologists lied in the Ringen case.

Fritz believes that, along the way, Michaelian “became so focused on winning and vindicating his reputation that he lost sight of the financial aspect … basically, he was sucked into the fight.”

Michaelian has no regrets.

“If you can be hurt by telling the truth, then there’s a problem with this system,” he said.