County gets $20 million lawsuit dismissed

Posted: Friday, June 17, 2011 5:20 pm
By Lily Bixler [ lily@hmbreview.com ]

On Thursday a San Francisco judge dismissed a $20 million lawsuit involving San Mateo County and local school districts because the complaint didn't comply with state and county laws governing lawsuits against public entities.

A band of Peninsula school districts, including Cabrillo Unified, alleged San Mateo County imprudently invested in Lehman Brothers holdings. The school districts and the county superintendent of schools seek recovery of $20 million in school district investments. That money was lost, the plaintiff claimed, when the county and its former treasurer, Lee Buffington, allowed the county's Lehman Brothers notes to plummet from a purchase price of $155 million to roughly $34 million in fall 2008.

San Mateo County is suspected to have lost more in the Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy than any county in the United States.

At the local level, Cabrillo Unified's losses were estimated to be just less than $1.4 million. That money would have been used for construction and an assortment of different programs. The lawsuit comes at a time when the school district faces dramatic cuts.

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Submitted by Jim Alex