City Being Sued for $14 Million

Sirous and Sons Rug Gallery may be gone, but it keeps making news.

An owner of the now-closed shop at 222 Ocean Ave., which made waves last year after its manager, Saeid Maralan, , is suing the city of Laguna Beach for $14 million, for reasons related to the flood of Dec. 22, 2010.

The shop sustained mud and water damage to its inventory of expensive Persian rugs. The owner, Sirous Ghasemian, blames the city for being responsible for the damage, and claims that the city was negligent in 2002 for turning down the advice of the Army Corps of Engineers to expand the Beach Street storm drain, which backed up during the flood and played a large role in the downtown flooding.

The city's reasoning at the time was that expansion of the drain would have caused too much disruption to downtown businesses.

Ghasemian tried to get the city to pay $15 million to cover his damages back in June, but the city council turned his request down.

Maralan, meanwhile, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled in March.