METROLINK SUIT TARGETS FATAL DRIVER MOVE MAY AID LEGAL POSITION.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

GLENDALE - Metrolink has sued the man whose aborted suicide attempt is blamed for last week's deadly train derailment, a strategy that experts said might be a way to fend off lawsuits from victims and strengthen its legal position.

The lawsuit, filed in Burbank Superior Court two days after the collision, claimed negligence, carelessness and recklessness by Juan Manual Alvarez in parking his SUV on the train tracks and causing 11 deaths and injuries to about 180.

``It's a standard filing that we make whenever we have an incident where we've suffered damage to our property we believe as a result of another's actions,'' said Metrolink spokesman Francisco Oaxaca.

Metrolink does not cite a monetary figure in the suit.

Metrolink has not yet assessed the full extent of the damages, but each rail car costs between $3 million and $3.5 million and each locomotive is about $4 million, Oaxaca said.

Six cars and two locomotives involved in the wreck. Tracks can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair, he said.

Alvarez has been charged with murder with special circumstances - making the death penalty a possibility - in the crash deaths.

Investigators said that a distraught Alvarez, intending to kill himself, parked his Jeep Grand Cherokee on the train tracks in Glendale. But when the train approached, he changed his mind and jumped out of the car.

When southbound Train No. 100 smashed into the SUV, it derailed, rammed a parked Union Pacific freight train and collided with another Metrolink train heading north out of Union Station.

Legal experts said the filing could simply be part of the process to get more information on Alvarez or to discourage lawsuits from passengers or victims' families who live outside the state.

``This could be another way for Metrolink to be protecting itself,'' said Jonathan Zasloff, law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

`If they have already started a lawsuit concerning this accident in California, it is much less likely that one of the victims of this accident can sue them in another court, either in another part of California or in another state.'' The suit also could be a public relations move by Metrolink, which likely will be the target of numerous lawsuits from the worst crash in its 12-year-history.

``I think it's clearly strategic, because this guy can't pay a lot of damages, so the stated reason of the suit is not the reason of the suit,'' said Gregory Keating, law professor at the University of Southern California.

``I assume one dimension of it is public relations, because the public will get the message that Alvarez is to blame for the accident.''

Metrolink officials have said their policy has a $4 million deductible and the agency has a reserve fund of $2 million to $3 million to cover its deductibles.

Metrolink has put up a stiff fight against lawsuits brought by 19 injured passengers and the family of a Santa Clarita woman who died after a 2003 wreck in Burbank, according to the plaintiffs' attorney.

In that case, a motorist drove around a barrier and across the tracks as the train approached, causing the crash that killed one and rendered a Newhall attorney a paraplegic.

Neither Glendale police nor Oaxaca were able to confirm if Alvarez had car insurance, but even if he did, it is unlikely it would cover the damages Metrolink would be seeking.

``I'm not aware of any auto policy that would come close to meeting the threshold that would be involved in something like this,'' said Pete Moraga, spokesman for Insurance Information Network of California, which represents the property casualty insurance industry.

Teresa Nance, daughter of victim Elizabeth Hill, 65, said Metrolink is simply trying to shift its liability onto Alvarez.

Naush Boghossian, [phone]

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com