Lennar sued by shipyard artist
Serpentinite is California's state rock. It can contain naturally-occuring asbestos.
Shipyard artist Jack Hain says he just wants his rocks back. Serpentinite rocks, that is.
And getting these rocks back appears to be the crux of the case that Hain has filed in Superior Court against Lennar. That and the question of whether it's OK to move materials from one part of shipyard to another.
But unlike the other shipyard-related cases involving Lennar, Hain isn’t worried about possible health risks from the serpentinite, which can contain naturally-occuring asbestos.
Veins of chrysotile, or other members of the asbestos family, can run through serpentinite rock, making it a toxic health hazard, if crushed, dug or otherwise quarried and excavated.
That’s because, says Hain, he wasn’t crushing or grading the rocks, but simply moving them across the yard.
Hain sued Lennar Communities and Lennar BVHP on May 15, 2008 in Superior Court, a month before residents sued the developer and two of its shipyard subcontractors, CH2M Hill and Gordon N. Ball, and five weeks before Lennar sued one of its subcontractors, CH2M Hill, for failure to monitor and control asbestos dust.
But unlike those suits, which center around Lennar’s failure to protect the community from naturally-occurring asbestos, while digging into a hillside full of serpentinite, Hain’s suit centers around the fact that Lennar removed three serpentinite rocks from an art work that Hain was building outside his studio in Building 116 on Parcel B of the Shipyard. (That's the parcel where the Navy is currently proposing revisions to its original plan for radiological, soil and groundwater clean up.)
Map of areas under radiologically investigation at Hunters Point Shipyard.
In his suit, Hain describes his surroundings on the shipyard as a “desolate and decayed landscape, so heavily polluted with radioactivity and other toxins that it has been declared as a federal ‘Superfund’ site.
This apocalyptical landscape is what apparently inspired Hain to build a 2,000 sq. ft installation called “Hope Springs Eternal” on the parking lot outside his studio.
The installation involved reshaping 86 tons of clay, gravel, rock and concrete debris, importing 10 tons of compost, 3 tons of flagstones, casting a concrete patio, installing an underground irrigation system, including a 550 gallon underground water storage tank, with an electrically powered pump, and even recycling old shipyard railroad ties.
But to Hain’s mind, the real icing on his hope-filled artistic cake were three "large and extraordinarily beautiful serpentinite boulders,” that he placed atop his work’s flagstone surfaces on June 28, 2007.
“This area has loads of serpentinite in it,” Hain told the Guardian. “It’s the state rock and it’s a very beautiful. I noticed last fall that Gordon Ball was digging through large quantities of it near the guard tower. So I went to their foreman and asked for some boulders, and he said, ‘It’s ok, if Lennar says so.’”
Hain claims that he got an Ok from a foreman at Lennar’s trailer on the shipyard, after which he paid $200 to rent a truck and drive to the materials yard, where excavated rock was stored.
Hain selected three boulders, which were loaded onto his truck by staff at the yard,.
But on September 7. 2007, Hain got a call from Lennar’s environmental manager Jeff Austin, who stated he was having the boulders removed.
Hain objected, arguing that the boulders were obtained properly, were his property, and were “part of an artwork. Hain claims he warned Austin that if Lennar took his rocks, he would sue for damages.
Hain claims Austin stated that the boulders violated Hain’s lease with the Navy.
Hain further claims that when he said he rents monthly through a verbal agreement with Navy, Austin responded by “laughing and terminating the conversation.”
Hain then complained to Austin’s superior, Gary McIntyre, who in March 2007 sued Lennar for harassment and racial discrimination in a suit that was eventually settled for an undisclosed sum.
Hain claims that, “over the course of several conversations McIntyre expressed concern about Austin’s conduct and assured Hain that boulders wouldn’t be removed.
But on Oct. 4, Hain’s serpentinite boulders were removed. It’s Hain’s belief that their removal from his art work was performed at the request of Austin, or another Lennar employee.
Noting that the materials for his work have exceeded $10,100, so far, and that the absence of the boulders has caused great damage to his work, Hain is requesting the immediate return of his rocks, “undamaged to plaintiff’s studio, or in the alternative, for the value of the damaged art work.”
Noting that during their transportation and subsequent use in his art work, the serpentinite boulders “were merely loaded, unloaded and positioned, so it’s not an issue of disturbing friable asbestos particles,” Hain told the Guardian that Lennar BVHP’s top executive, Kofi Bonner, offered him $5,000 to settle the matter.
“ But I felt that wasn’t adequate. All I want is my boulders back,” Hain said, claiming that Austin had previously told him that shipyard materials must be tracked, and not moved from parcel to parcel.
“But Bonner told me the boulders were gone. So their so-called tracking mechanism was apparently a farce. It shows how a corporation can try to bully the little guy by finding a rule to justify their act, but that they themselves are not following this regulation.”
A request to Lennar officials for clarification about this case and their alleged requirement that shipyard materials be tracked remains unanswered.
Meanwhile, Hain still hasn't got his rocks back on his artwork.
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