Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Arbitrator decides in favor of second 'saviors' of house

By Jeff Kearns

The stately Victorian at 55 Hernandez Ave., which recently emerged from a legal tug-of-war over its ownership, will be the subject of a Planning Commission hearing Aug. 12. Title to the house was awarded to Willie and Helen Cadiente in early July when an arbitration concluded the house was theirs, ending a two-year legal battle with Morgan Hill contractor Tim Lantz.

Lantz, who has won awards for his work restoring historic homes, agreed to fix the house after it was almost destroyed in the Loma Prieta earthquake. But because Lantz's restoration cost $780,000, the owners agreed to leave the house to him when they died if they would be allowed to live there for the rest of their lives.

The owners, Lysbet Wright and her mother, Katherine Taylor, have since died. Taylor died without a will in 1993, and Wright followed in 1996.

The Cadientes, who own the Crestwood residential care home where Taylor stayed before she died, bought the house from her an hour before it was scheduled to be auctioned off by the state because of unpaid loans. Willie Cadiente says he wasn't aware of the agreement with Lantz when he bought the house.

After Taylor's death, the state called on Wright to repay a $400,000 loan from the Disaster Assistance Program. Unable to pay, Wright sold the house to the Cadientes for $800,000.

Lantz wouldn't go into detail on the case, citing pending legal matters, but says he's not done fighting for the house. He says he's not sure how much time he spent restoring the house. "I was working on it all the time, under the assumption that it was my house," he said.

Cadiente says he hasn't paid Lantz anything for his restoration efforts but offered the contractor $100,000 to drop his lawsuit.

He adds that he and his wife have been slowly moving into the house since they won the arbitration, and that they are looking for an architect to remodel the inside and redo Lantz's work, which Cadiente claims was improperly done. Cadiente says the work will cost more than $300,000.

The house is not currently protected by any historic preservation rules except the pre-1941 guidelines, which is why neighbors were the ones who pushed the town to consider giving it a Landmark Historic Preservation zoning. Even so, Cadiente says that the designation only regulates work that can be done on the outside, not the inside.

Sarah Schradle, who lives across from the house on Palm Avenue, has been following the saga closely. Schradle says she first called town officials when she thought the Cadientes were gutting the third floor of the house. Now, she and other neighbors are upset at what they call the shabby condition of the house. "The house now is an eyesore," she says. "The paint is peeling, the roof is faded, and there are sandbags in the yard left over from El Niño. We're afraid he's just going to let it rot for the next 20 years."

The Planning Commission considers the historic designation Aug. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

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