Judge Dismisses Landlord Suit Challenging Local Harassment Law

By Jorge Casuso

Jan. 12 -- A Superior Court judge last week tossed out a lawsuit filed by a local landlord group charging that the City's tenant harassment ordinance is unconstitutional.

Judge Roy L. Hart ruled Thursday that the plaintiff, ACTION Apartment Association, lacks standing to challenge the 1995 ordinance and that none of its various legal theories has merit, said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky.

"They were trying to show that the City can harass landlords so they will be afraid to evict anyone," said Radinsky, who prosecutes tenant harassment cases for the City.

Landlord attorney Rosario Perry said ACTION would likely appeal the decision.

The lawsuit -- which was filed in Superior Court in May 2002 -- claimed that the City's law violated various constitutional and other rights of Santa Monica landlords. ACTION raised more than a dozen legal theories, including freedom of speech, due process, discrimination, and state law preemption, Radinsky said.

The suit focused on a provision of the ordinance that prohibits landlords from evicting a tenant based on "facts which the landlord has no reasonable cause to believe are true or upon a legal theory which is untenable."

The case was filed after the City sent a letter to Doreen Dennis, who had evicted a tenant from one of the four units in her building in early 2001 to move her daughter in.

The letter, Perry said, came a week after the two parties had settled the eviction case before it went to trial.

"We were hoping the judge would rule on the unconstitutionality of the ordinance," Perry said.

Buy Radinsky said Dennis was never brought to court and faced no imminent prosecution, giving her no standing to challenge the case.

The ACTION lawsuit marks the fifth time that Santa Monica landlords have unsuccessfully challenged the Tenant Harassment Ordinance in court since the ordinance was adopted in October 1995.