Virginia city unfair to Filipino dentist, must settle — judge

Members of the Filipino community and other supporters rally for Dr. Allan Bergano whose dental office had to move sites due to eminent domain but without compensation from the City of Virginia Beach. YOUTUBE

SAN FRANCISCO — A US district judge in the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia, said city authorities treated a local Filipino dentist unfairly by forcing him to move without paying him compensation due to a technicality.

U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan says the City of Virginia Beach has treated Dr. Allan Bergano unfairly in an eminent domain case and ordered the city to settle with the dentist, who sued the city for damages.

“The city ought to settle the case with the plaintiff, but the city ought not be treating people like this unfairly, which is what they’re doing,” Judge Morgan stated.

Virginia Beach in 2014 bought Dr. Allan Bergano’s building, where he has been a dentist since 1983, and told him to move. The purchase was part of the city’s plan to widen Witchduck Road.

The following year Bergano signed a lease for a new building and submitted a customary expense of relocation and buildup of new office to the city. The city offered Bergano $25,000 to relocate. Other dentists received between $280,000 and $520,000 to relocate.

Dr. Allan Bergano.

Then the city changed its mind and said Bergano did not have to move. It withdrew its offer of $25,000 and the Human Services Department moved into Bergano’s old building.

But Bergano had already signed a new lease elsewhere and refused to move back to his old building, saying the human services office brings with it inmates in handcuffs and other people with serious issues, making the environment unsafe for his staff. Bergano will move to a new site at his own expense June 1.

Bergano submitted an estimate of $458,393 for relocation costs to the city, which included hiring a real estate broker and all the new equipment and construction costs the move required.

The city claims it does not need to pay Bergano relocation funds because in the end it changed its mind and ruled that Bergano did not have to move after all, even though he signed a new lease elsewhere.

The city said it paid other dentists hundreds of thousands of dollars because the buildings they were in had to be destroyed, unlike Bergano’s old building. It also said it offered Bergano more than $2,000, parking accommodations and arrangements for the hours his dental office can open.