A federal appeals panel appeared sympathetic toward a claim that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has failed in its duty to veterans but also raised concerns that a trial judge may have overstepped his authority in a broad order requiring the agency to build more housing on its West Los Angeles campus.
“When you look at things that have occurred on this property, I struggle with how some of the things the VA did benefited veterans at all,” presiding Judge Consuelo M. Callahan said early in the proceeding.
But she added, “I guess the remedies here are what caused me concern, the reach of what Judge Carter [ordered].”
The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard multiple appeals Tuesday in a complex class-action case in which U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter invalidated four leases of VA land to private entities including UCLA and a K-12 school, and issued an injunction ordering the agency to build thousands of units of housing to allow disabled veterans to be near the medical services they need.
After a trial last year, Carter ordered the VA to immediately construct 100 temporary housing units on the 388-acre property and plan to add more temporary housing and 1,800 units of permanent housing within six years.
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