County and Irvine Co. May Settle Suit Over Easement : Land use: Dispute involves value of land seized for new freeway access ramp from John Wayne Airport.

Five days before trial, the Orange County Airport Commission will be asked on Wednesday to pay the Irvine Co. $437,500 to settle a lengthy and complicated legal dispute over an easement near John Wayne Airport.

The easement along the San Diego Freeway was seized from the Irvine Co. by the county for maintenance of a new ramp connecting the airport’s parking garages with the northbound lanes of the Costa Mesa Freeway.

During the dispute, the Irvine Co. has contended that an old appraisal for the land is too low and that a retaining wall built to support the ramp lowered the rental value of offices in its Executive Park industrial complex adjacent to the San Diego freeway.

Attorneys for the Irvine Co. say the appraisal of the easement at $58,000 was never enough, and rents are affected because the retaining wall hides some tenants’ corporate signs.

If the proposed settlement is approved by the commission, it will go before the Board of Supervisors next week for a final decision to end the four-year legal fight which is headed for trial on Jan. 10.

The case is a novel one in which the Irvine Co. lost on an earlier pretrial issue of “abutter’s rights,� a legal theory stating that land owners can collect damages for certain things that occur on property near theirs. The company had threatened to appeal the ruling.

Since the Irvine Co. sued in Superior Court, the litigation has grown more complicated as other parties filed lawsuits related to the easement and retaining wall.

Kitchell Contractors, a tenant in Executive Park, claimed it has lost the effectiveness of any signs. Caltrans was sued too, and then Caltrans hit Orange County with a lawsuit, alleging that the county should have indemnified it against any problems caused by the easement.

It is a legal mess, said Robert Waldron, an attorney for the Irvine Co.

The county also has had some second thoughts. Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran said some factors were not included in the original estimate of the easement’s market value. When several years of inflation and interest are taken into account, he said, it all adds up.

“It’s a good settlement for everybody,� Duran said.