After almost two years and two weeks since the death of their sons, the parents of Brian Cressner and Yuta "Peter" Kurahashi settled their civil suit against Pomona College for $1.6 million last month.

Cressner and Kurahashi, then sophomores, were killed on February 23, 1998 shortly before seven p.m. when a Eucalyptus tree, estimated at eight tons, fell across Fourth Street at College Avenue, crushing Kurahashi’s SUV and killing both students instantly.

Over three inches of rain had fallen in the previous 36 hours, and the students were driving to class to keep dry when the soggy ground lost hold of the roots and the tree fell.

Administrators and students alike were shocked by the sudden loss, and most accepted the tragedy as an unavoidable natural occurrence. However, after the memorials and funerals were over, the parents filed a wrongful death suit alleging Pomona College was negligent in its care of the tree and is to blame for the death of their sons.

"We absolutely blame the college," said Thom Peters, attorney for the Cressner family. The settlement came just seven days before the case was set to go to trial at the Los Angeles County Municipal courthouse in Pomona.

Peters said that, despite the pre-trial settlement, Pomona should admit its failure to take action that could have prevented the accident.

In legal documents from pre-trial discovery and fact finding an independent arborist, Ken Folker, states in an April 15, 1994 letter to the Pomona grounds department, "The Eucalyptus tree…appears stable and healthy. The only need here is to remove some of the larger dead wood and perhaps some thinning of the foliage which would reduce wind stress on the tree."

It also states that Eucalyptus are "not a desirable species, as it is very prone to poor branch structure and breakage." The species is native to Australia, where the soil and climate is more suitable. Arborists said the heat in Claremont causes branches to fall more frequently.

Peters also stressed that certified arborist examined the tree between 1994 and the accident.

Ronald Nemo, Pomona’s horticulturist, said the school trimmed and thinned the tree on College and Fourth about two years ago but did not have a regular maintenance schedule for it or any other trees.

"We’re just now finding out these trees are bad," said Nemo.

For the parents of the deceased, "just now" is not early enough. They say the school had ample evidence that tree was dangerous and should have taken more aggressive actions to prevent injury resulting from limbs, or entire trees, falling.

In legal depositions Pomona College admits it made no change in the frequency of inspections of campus trees between 1990 and the accident, allocated no additional money for tree maintenance and in no way altered the means of monitoring the trees.

It also says that the tree was the property of the college alone, and therefore the college had sole responsibility for its upkeep.

After the accident Stanley told The Student Life that the tree that killed Cressner and Kurahashi belonged to the city, not the college, and that "a lot of people [were] concerned" about the trees on College Avenue. Claremont owns and maintains trees that grow on the street-side of the sidewalk on College Ave.

In his deposition Peter Grant, who handles insurance claims for Claremont University Center, said he knew of six complaints of property damage related to trees, three of them at Pomona, two at Scripps and one at Claremont McKenna College.

In his testimony Grant said that all of these occurred within a half mile of the tree that eventually killed Cressner and Kurahashi.

Stanley said many of those incidents came during a 1997 storm, when several limbs dropped in Harwood courtyard.

"It’s not as if Eucalyptus were dropping all over the place," said Stanley.

Peters, the Cressners’ attorney, wrote in a statement of facts of the civil suit that, "A number of unequivocal signs indicating the tree’s precarious situation existed for years, yet all were ignored by Pomona College. Had the College heeded any of those signs, the boys would be alive today."

Among the signs was the tree’s five-to-ten foot tilt over Fourth St., which is documented in a picture in the case’s file at the courthouse.

Stanley, who was the first to call campus security on the night of the accident, and who’s front door faces where the tree once stood, said the tree has been listing for almost 30 years.

"A tree growing at an angle is not inherently a danger," said Stanley.

Lawyers for the families are also concerned with the fate of the root ball, the system of shallow roots that broke through the ground’s surface when the wind pressure on the canopy forced the tree over.

They say it is important because arborists, both for the families and the school, admit that Eucalyptus roots grow shallow and wide. Any obstruction to growth, or damage to the roots, would substantially weaken the tree’s foundation.

The night of the accident city officials came to the aid of the college, as Pomona does not have access to the heavy equipment needed to remove the tree from the car and, ultimately, from the grounds.

What worries the families is that the root ball was gone by the next morning, thereby eliminating any possibility of examining the system to see if it was sound.

In court documents Pomona acknowledges that it does not know where the root ball was taken, or who authorized the city to remove it. The Cressners and Kurahashis, according to letters from their lawyers, think this is not only negligent, but also part of an intentional plan to thwart the process of assigning blame for the incident.

In a letter from Linda Cressner, Brian’s mother, to Peter Stanley, dated April 7, 2000, Ms. Cressner voiced her frustration with his handling of events immediately following the accident and in the aftermath.

"Not only was the tree removed and taken somewhere off campus (the only tree in the history of Pomona College that was not taken to the wash area) the few roots remaining in the ground were grounded out by a stump grinder and all before 7:00 a.m. Being that no other tree on campus had ever killed anyone it is beyond belief a thorough investigation as to why, was never performed," she writes.

Peters writes that the removal of the root ball "undermined forensic efforts to determine the cause of the tree’s failure but strengthened the college’s hand in litigation, for how could the families prove why the tree failed when the tree was no longer around."

John Gibony, director of planning for Pomona, was at the scene of the accident two years ago, and he, like Stanley, does not know who authorized the city to remove the root ball.

"We did not ask the city to remove the tree. They showed up with the equipment to cut it up. I think they might have asked me if it was alright to haul it away, because I remember telling them, ‘yeah, but don’t take this piece here, the memorial [section of the tree].’"

Stanley said a city arborist inspected the tree the next morning and found it to be healthy; however, he does not know if the arborist inspected the roots. Court files had no record of pictures taken during the day of the roots.

The families allege that work to a sprinkler system or steam line near Thatcher Music Hall could have damaged the roots, as arborists warned.

"When you do any digging or heavy construction near the base of a Eucalyptus you jeopardize the root system," said Peters.

Gibony said that is not likely: "There’s no way it could have anything to do with the tree. It couldn’t have come within 15 feet of that root ball."

Pomona’s administration has been adamant in asserting that the incident was "an act of nature or an act of God," according to President Peter Stanley. Stanley thinks excessive rainfall, from El Niño, loosened the ground around the tree, and wind from the same storm blew over the drenched tree.

Both the parents and students are angry at the school’s attempts to shift blame for the accident onto the storm.

"This was three inches of rain," said Todd Katzberg ’00, who was close to both students. "Not a tornado and not an earthquake, but a rain storm. It might not rain like that all the time here, but it does happen, and students should be safe when it does."

Pomona horticulturist Ronald Nemo says there is nothing the college could have done to prevent it.

"I believe the soil became super saturated, and because the soil was so super saturated, when the tree was wet the soil failed," he said. "Nobody could predict that tree was going to fall."

Administration officials want to put the episode behind them, and cite the terms of the agreement, which legally absolves the school of blame.

"We acknowledge heartily real sorrow, and if I were in their position I have no idea what I would say or do. But, to accept blame is something different, and we have not seen reason to believe that the college was culpable," said Stanley.

Peters thinks a payoff of this size shows that the school feared losing the suit. "When you’ve got $1.6 million being paid, this is not chump change. Parties don’t pay $1.6 million wrongful death lawsuits unless they are concerned juries are going to find against them," he said.

Despite plans for an acceleration of tree maintenance, including a database of all campus trees and the removal of all trees close to buildings this summer, Eucalyptus continue to drop around campus, and the school has no formal plans to phase out all of the Eucalyptus.

On March 20 a limb crashed through a student’s window in Wig Hall, and in the Fall a city Eucalyptus dropped a large limb onto Alexander Hall.

Nemo, the school’s horticulturist, thinks all the older Eucalyptus should go, with some provisions.

"If we do cut the trees down, we’ve got to replace them. You replace the Eucalyptus with another tree," said Nemo.