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MONDAY, - The office building property is owned by JANUARY 9, 1995 McKay Investment Co. It is leased by the Southern Willamette Private Industry Council, and occupied by the council, Emerald Job • Center and the state Adult and Family Services' Initial Jobs Search program. DON BISHOFF What the Smolaks and Campbell still can't find out is who owns the land the tree stood on — three feet off the parking lot, on the banks of the • Q Street drainage ditch that flows through the n a l imb area. O Vt�t O OT OUR PROPERTY, says the McKay • • • company. The state says Lane County k in justice owns ii couThe usty y say ays it lado. see g And even if the squashed-car cr crowd wd pin pin down the tree owner, they might not collect. That's WONDER IF God has a risk manager or a where the "act of God" part comes in. "Please be advised our investigation into this I good lawyer. Seems like he could hardly matter has indicated it was an act of God which afford to be without either these days. Any time something bad happens and nobody caused the tree in question to fall down and s nd d Angie „ strike your vehicle," said a letter to the Smola ks wants to and for it, they call i an 'act of God. from TIG Insurance, which represents McKay. Nick and Shirlee Smolak a The letter did not reveal the religious nature have been hearing that phrase a lot for almost on. t stig he investigation. two months now — ever since a big cottonwood of the was oferring to is defined in Oregon tree broke and fell into a parking lot. It smashed Revised Statutes: "Act of God means an the Smolaks' station wagon into recycling unanticipated grave natural disaster or other material and did $1,750 damage to Campbell's natural phenomenon of an exceptional, As you drive east on Interstate 105, you can �r inevitable and irresistible character, the effects still see the Smolaks' of which could not have been prevented or smashed wagon and the ed oid by the exercise of due care or cut -up cottonwood splattered beside a big avoided h" billboard in an office building parking lot off of How about that! In a society that treasures Centennial Loop. p They've been there since the afternoon of separation of church and state, a body of law is Nov. 15. That's when a gust of wind apparently based on the theory of divine intervention. snapped the 75- foot -tall Has anybody told the American Civil tree about 15 feet Liberties Union? above the ground and You could argue that a single tree falling on r v e ' toppled it the width of some old cars doesn't qualify as a "grave natural the lot behind 78 disaster." There's also the issue of whether the -- effects could have been avoided. xt Centennial Loop. 1 Ever since, the Some workers in the building noticed the tree Smolaks and Campbell swaying in the wind and called the McKay office s A have searched in vain before it fell. "I sent our maintenance men down NI "" A for somebody to step there — I had 'em on the way," said McKay Ntlx .� H receptionist Ann Jacobson. l' � ', up and say: Hey, t Seems like the office workers should've also 6 . sorry, that was my r tree, They're and I'll pay the sounded a warning to people parked beneath the r , ir k tree. The Smolaks are using that argument in � more likely to find God trying to get the state or county or McKay — before that happens. somebody — to restore their wheels. Campbell's '79 Olds is drivable. But the The has car in Smolaks' Matador and Campbell are on welfare, tador is permanently gored. They none has car insurance that pays for falling-tree have only a tador r pickup that won't even hold damage — and they can't afford a lawyer to try them and their three young sons at the same to find justice, the tree owner or God. time. Nick Smolak is an out-of -work painter, and Things seem at an impasse, although the state operator. Campbell i yn oth parked d ear the tree promises another look at the county's claim that operator. Ieoni e y, both a attending a state a t ree the tree was state -owned. But, among them, the while in the officce find new jobs. state, county and McKay could probably have program to help theem m f find s. settled the Smolak - Campbell claims for little "Here we came to these people for help," more money then they've spent — or will spend Nick said. "We're down and out. And we're in a — sorting out the ownership and liability issue. worse position now than when we came to the Call it an emergency welfare grant. state for help." But until they do, Shirlee Smolak continues An additional irony: By taking the brunt of an almost -daily routine of calling public and the tree's blow, the Smolaks' big 1973 AMC private officials and attorneys, searching for Matador wagon shielded a Geo parked next to it justice. So far, she hasn't tried God — who seems from more serious damage. That car is owned by to be getting the blame. Charles Sisk, a jobs program worker — who does have falling -tree insurance.