$50M Lawsuit Targets Peninsula City: Report

FOSTER CITY, CA — A Peninsula man known as a pioneer in the home entertainment industry is suing Foster City for $50 million over the alleged use of his property for a levee construction project without his permission, The San Mateo Daily Journal reports.

Sam Runco is also suing contractors involved in the project, according to the report.

Runco alleges the contractors used undeveloped land on his property to move heavy equipment, and that the contractors used his land to build a bridge covering a drainage bed, the report said.

“It is obvious that they are planning to use my property to perform needed maintenance on the levee without permission in the future,” Runco said in a press release obtained by The Daily Journal.

Runco founded Runco International, which developed advancements in projection screen televisions considered revolutionary in the early 1980s.

Heralded the “Godfather of home theater,” Runco was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Association’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

He received an Emmy Award in 2013 for the world’s first aspect ratio controller known as the Arc IV, a device he developed in 1991.

Runco won in the category ‘Pioneering Development and Deployment of Aspect Ratio Control Technologies and Systems For Letterbox Images Within Consumer Devices.’

Read more in The San Mateo Daily Journal

— Rick Eymer contributed to this report