THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1999

Zagustin house auction postponed

By Sharon Christensen

On-Line Forty-Niner

Elena Zagustin will get to hang on to her Huntington Harbour home, for now that is.

Delaying legal proceedings, the Cal State Long Beach engineering professor has filed a claim on the property, which has long been the center of a heated dispute between Zagustin and neighbors, who describe her home as filthy and a health hazard.

A judge agreed and the foreclosure and sale of the home was ordered by an Orange County Superior Court as payment for the $350,000 civil judgment found against Zagustin in January.

The auction of the property appraised at $300,000 was originally scheduled for 10 a.m. today.

But Zagustin's motion, filed with superior court in Santa Ana, claims that the home is owned not by her, but by EZ Family Limited Partnership, a real estate investment and management business.

This claim states that Zagustin's property is owned by a third party. Until this claim is determined to be valid, Zagustin's property can not be sold.

"This latest little thing has put a crimp in [the auction]," said Tom McCurnin, a Los Angeles-based attorney for the more than twenty of Zagustin's neighbors who stand to collect on the sale of the home.

"We predicted it [the delay]," neighbor David Flynn said. "She has become the absolute poster child for abuse of the system."

The sale will not be rescheduled for at least another 30 days, according to Flynn. "We just decided to take the 30-day delay and clean up this mess that she's made," he added.

Also postponing the court-ordered sale of the home was Zagustin's filing of a motion to have the case moved to federal court.

"I am the defendant, I have the right to remove," Zagustin said.

A hearing on Zagustin's third party claim on the home was scheduled for last Thursday, and was to be heard by Santa Ana Superior Court Judge Ronald Bauer, said McCurnin, who filed the motion to strike the claim.

"I fully expect to lose," McCurnin said last week regarding the scheduled hearing.

But McCurnin never had the chance to lose. The hearing was postponed due to Zagustin's filing to remove the case to federal court. The change of venue eliminated the county court's jurisdiction over a case being heard in federal court, said McCurnin.

"I don't understand why they're filing motions in superior court," Zagustin said Thursday.

"We're done with the state court for now," McCurnin said Monday, after the cancellation of the hearing.

Zagustin, who has intermittently represented herself in the past, has hired Santa Ana attorney Timothy McCandless.

McCandless could not be reached for comment.

Neighbors had planned a block party set for this weekend, but that, too, has been postponed.

"We didn't go too far with that [the party]," Flynn said. "We were afraid to plan anything because we know her."