MRCA settles for $14 million in oak tree death of 8-year-old boy Play

The MRCA has agreed to pay $14 million in state money to the family of a little boy who was killed when a massive oak tree limb crashed to the ground — exactly as tree experts had warned.

An out-of-court settlement has been reached between the state attorney general's office, which represents the MRCA, and the boy's surviving parents.

The MRCA is the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a subdivision of the state of California, and as such, the $14 million will come from state funds, not from the MRCA budget.

The settlement was reported by the Acorn newspaper of Thousand Oaks, which learned of the settlement.

One week before the massive limb broke off and fell, MRCA officials were warned of the possibility by its own employees and outside tree experts. But the agency allowed a summer day camp to continue to rent the space at King Gillette Ranch and use it for a children's summer day care camp.

On July 9 of last year, 8-year-old Lamar McClothurn of Los Angeles was waiting under the oak tree for his parents to pick him up. The giant oak gave way. Tons of wood crashed down.

The boy's parents arrived moments later to find their son crushed. They tried to lift the massive logs up, but they could not. Lamar was crushed to death.

Terms of the lawsuit were not released. It appears that the MRCA will not have to actually pay the amount out of its budget. As a state agency, damages will be paid by the state government, not the parks agency.

King Gillette Ranch is a section of rolling oaks with a historic ranch house — now an office building — in the center. It is rented out for all sorts of uses by the MRCA, including a Halloween maze and Christmas light festival, both also located under the century-old oak trees.

King Gillette Ranch is owned by the federal and state governments and managed by the MRCA, a parks agency controlled by the state through the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and California State Parks.