City to Pay $1 Million in Angels Flight Accident

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved the city’s part of a proposed $3-million settlement with the family of a Holocaust survivor who was killed in the Angels Flight funicular accident Feb. 1.

The council voted unanimously to authorize the city Community Redevelopment Agency to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the wrongful death of Leon Praport, 83, and the serious injury of his wife, Lola, 81.

The Angels Flight Railway Foundation has tentatively agreed to pay another $1 million, according to Gary Dordick, an attorney for the family. An attorney for the foundation said talks are still underway.

The settlement, which was recommended by a mediator, would have another $1 million paid by Pueblo Contracting Services, the San Fernando restorer of the funicular, though attorneys said that firm has not yet signed off on the deal. The parties are scheduled to meet Friday in an effort to wrap up the settlement, according to Dordick.

Jeff Behar, an attorney for Pueblo, and Dov Lesel, an attorney for the CRA, both said they are hopeful all the parties can complete a settlement by Friday.

“We are currently considering the mediator’s proposal,” Behar said.

If Pueblo does not agree to the settlement, Dordick’s clients are willing to settle with the city and foundation for $2 million and litigate against the contractor, Dordick said.

Behar said Lola Praport suffered brain damage and a shattered leg and arm when the funicular car she was riding in plummeted into another car. The widow, who lives in Old Bridge, N.J., requires an attendant to help her move around and often loses her train of thought in mid-sentence, Dordick said.

A son of the couple, Elan Praport, also was a plaintiff in the case.

“Our family was devastated,” he said. “We are struggling.”

City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who heads a committee that recommended the $1-million payment, said it was the right thing to do, both for the family and for taxpayers.

The city could have paid much more, Garcetti said, because a jury would most likely have sympathized with an elderly Holocaust survivor killed while vacationing in Los Angeles.

“There is no more sympathetic individual,” Garcetti said. “His wife can barely function without help. They had been to Disneyland the day before. They probably could have won $10 million if this had gone to trial.”

Six others were injured in the accident. The 100-year-old Angels Flight railroad remains closed as federal investigators continue to examine what went wrong with the machinery, which apparently allowed a cable to unravel from a drum.

The 298-foot rail system in downtown Los Angeles originally operated between 1901 and 1969 but was dismantled as the CRA helped bring office towers to Bunker Hill. The CRA paid for the system to be reinstalled, and it reopened in 1996.

The Times reported in March that despite the CRA’s private engineers’ warnings that track brakes were necessary, agency officials allowed the builders to alter the design in 1995 to eliminate those brakes and other safety features.

The proposed settlement does not involve two other private firms that provided engineering management on the project.