A homeowner’s lawsuit against the city of Atascadero over 2023 storm damage that forced his family out of their home has finally gone to trial after two years.
San Luis Obispo County faced historic rainfall in 2023 that caused an estimated $40 million in damage to county infrastructure.
Aaron Spiller was one of the victims.
Spiller’s home — located at 1210 San Ramon Road in Atascadero — was red-tagged and after heavy rains in March 2023 flooded Graves Creek, which borders the property, the creek bank was eroded so much that it threatened his home’s foundation.
In September of that year, Spiller filed a lawsuit alleging the city was responsible for property damage due to its failure to properly maintain the creek, particularly during heavy rains.
Since then, Spiller and his family have not been able to return home. They foreclosed on the property this fall, according to court documents.
Spiller bought the home in 2010 for $390,000, and refinanced it in 2020 with a $416,000 mortgage.
Initially, the lawsuit sought $900,000 for the cost to repair the property, but since Spiller no longer owns the home, he is now suing for the cost of losing the property and emotional distress.
The trial began Wednesday in the Paso Robles branch of San Luis Obispo Superior Court.
Attorneys for both Spiller and the city declined to comment during the ongoing trial.
“The city looks forward to presenting its case to a judge and jury,” Atascadero spokesman Terry Banish said in an emailed statement to The Tribune.
Aaron Spiller lost most of his Atascadero backyard and the city of Atascadero red-tagged his home as uninhabitable after storm surges in March 2023 sent Graves Creek flowing into his yard. Pictured here on October 18, 2023.
What happened to the Atascadero house?
The Spillers’ troubles began on Jan. 22, 2023, when Spiller and his neighbors saw an oak tree fall into Graves Creek during a storm and land on top of the Spillers’ home, according to court documents.
The city sent out an emergency declaration on January 9 warning of “fallen trees” posing a threat to public and private property, specifically citing Graves Creek as one of “states of disaster and extreme risk to the safety of people, their property and public services”.
During another atmospheric river that March, the oak tree was pushed downstream, landing on the creek embankment adjacent to the Spillers’ property.
The tree-entangled storm created a dam that diverted the river’s flow directly onto the Spillers’ property, causing water to significantly inundate his back yard.
The image on the left was taken before the March 10, 2023 storm in the rear of 1210 San Ramon Road. The image on the right is after the storm.
Spiller contacted the city in person and via email on March 10 for help, but was told “if the creek naturally drains outside the reservation, the owner of the creek reservation is not responsible for repairing or restoring it,” according to court documents.
The creek “is on both the city and Spiller’s property,” court documents said.
Later in the day on March 10, the Atascadero Fire Department came out to Spiller’s property to monitor the situation and set up caution tape around the erosion, but no action was taken to remove the tree from the creek. Spiller was told to contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance.
In the days that followed, a break in harsh weather allowed Spiller — with the help of family and friends — to enter the creek and try to clear the oak tree and storm debris on his own, but the amount of large trees and damming material in the creek was too much to remove on his own, court documents said.
Heavy rains hit again on March 14 and 15, further eroding the Spillers’ already eroded backyard until “a few feet of land remained between the Spillers’ home and the top of the creek embankment,” court documents said.
Spiller emailed the city again on March 16 for “urgent” help.
“The presently diverted creek bank is about five feet from the foundation of my house,” he wrote back, requesting the removal of the oak tree and the reinforcement of the creek embankment, which was close to his house.
The image on the left was taken before the March 10, 2023 storm in the rear of 1210 San Ramon Road. The image on the right is after the storm.
On March 17, the property was red tagged, the Spiller family was forced to evacuate, and the city contracted services to remove trees and debris at a cost of $20,000, court documents show.
Spiller shares a driveway with his neighbor, who does not allow heavy equipment to cross his driveway for fear of damage, so large sections of the oak tree were cut but could not be removed from the creek bed, court documents said. Small debris, branches and small pieces of wood were cut and removed on March 18 and 19.
But by then, “catastrophic levels of damage had already been done and there were no spillover assets saved,” court documents said.
On June 29, 2023, local contractor Anderson Burton cited the cost of filling erosion in the original soil to restore the damaged property at $882,800 — “more than the value of the entire property,” Spiller said in court Thursday. As of March 2023, the property was valued at $790,000, according to court documents.
Asked by city attorneys in court if he considered doing any repairs to restore the property, Spiller said there was “no way I could.”
“The amount of money it would have taken to even start this project – I don’t have that kind of money in the bank anywhere,” he said.
Spiller received a $14,000 personal assistance grant from FEMA in April 2023 but that time was “a drop in the bucket,” he told the Tribune.
After the incident, Spiller received a mortgage forbearance on his home to temporarily stop making mortgage payments. He foreclosed on the home and sold it back to the lender this fall.
“I don’t own it anymore,” Spiller told the court Thursday.
Spiller filed a claim with the city in July 2023 and met with several city, county and federal representatives, including City Council member Susan Funk, Supervisor Bruce Gibson and Congressman Jimmy Panetta, but to no avail, he said.
After his claim died, he sued the city on September 13, 2023.
Aaron Spiller lost most of his Atascadero backyard and was red-tagged as uninhabitable by the city of Atascadero after storm surges in the March 2023 storm forced the flow of Graves Creek into his yard. See here on October 18, 2023.
What did the landlord, the argument of the city?
The courtroom was empty Thursday except for Spiller, attorneys, the judge, a 12-person jury and two members of Spiller’s family.
While Spiller’s attorney argued that the city was responsible for identifying and cleaning up the oak tree and debris from the river, the city had no way of removing the tree because no resident had been told of its existence before March 10, 2023.
“The city is not and cannot be held liable because it had no notice of the condition and did not cause the condition,” court documents said.
The city argued that Spiller neither called the city about the oak tree before March 10 — although his neighbor remembered him — nor “took any action to remove the tree or requested that it be removed by an entity or individual,” during a break in the storm, according to a trial brief by the city attorney.
“Spiller … did nothing to protect his property prior to the subject incident,” court documents said.
However, Spiller believes it is the city’s responsibility to protect its property by maintaining the creek.
“Despite the emergency declaration, the city acknowledges that it took no steps to inspect Graves Creek for any downed trees, debris or other hazards between Jan. 10, 2023 and March 10, 2023,” said a trial brief from Spiller’s attorneys, referring to the city’s Jan. 9 emergency prolam. “As a result, the city never became aware of the massive oak tree that fell from the Spiller property into the creek upstream just days after the emergency declaration was approved.”
There was also disagreement over who owned the section of Graves Creek by Spiller’s estate.
More than 90% of Graves Creek is privately owned, but the city owns two creek parcels that adjoin the Spiller property, court documents from city attorneys said.
Spiller didn’t call the crane company to remove the tree in March 2023 because he didn’t want to pay for it and didn’t feel the city had the “right” to contract the company for the land, he said.
On the other hand, the city did not perform routine maintenance on the creek because it was “almost entirely privately owned,” court documents said.
The city also argued that it could be the fault of Spiller’s neighbor, whose property the tree abuts.
“I didn’t know who owned that tree, but I knew it eventually ended up in the creek, and that’s what caused the damage,” Spiller said.
Aaron Spiller, seen in the Paso Robles branch of San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Dec. 4, 2025, after storm damage to his property in 2023 forced him and his family to permanently evacuate their home, which was deemed uninhabitable. The trial began two years later on December 3, 2025.
