By Lookout Staff

July 4, 2023 -- A family living in a Santa Monica rent-controlled apartment has been paid more than $1 million in a housing discrimination case, while the City won injunctions against the building's owner and manager, City officials said Tuesday.

The two cases allege that landlord Brida LLC and its managing agent Kathy Golshani refused to provide reasonable accommodations to a family that included a daughter with disabilities, officials said.

"The allegations included refusals to provide accommodations related to parking and medical equipment followed by alleged harassment in the form of blocking parked cars and improper entries into the subject unit," the City Attorney's office said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Sepe-Wiesenfeld has signed a stipulated judgment and injunctions against the two Defendant-landlords, officials said.

"The injunction protects future tenants with disabilities from discrimination and harassment."

Soon after the injunction was granted, the Defendants’ insurance company paid the family $1 million in their related discrimination case against the defendants, according to City officials.

"When the family alleged that Defendants’ harassment continued, Defendants also personally paid a second settlement to the family," officials said.

The family was represented by the law firm Taylor & Ring, LLP, which won a $42.6 million settlement in a sexual abuse case against the City in March 2020 ("Number of Plaintiffs Filing Child Molestation Cases Against the City Could Reach 100," March 9, 2023).

Under the stipulated judgment in the housing discrimination case signed by Judge Sepe-Wiesenfeld the defendants must obey the City’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance and Anti-Housing Discrimination Ordinance.

They also must adopt "a written, City-approved policy for handling requests by tenants with disabilities for reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications."

In addition, the defendants must attend a fair housing training every year for the next five years and pay $45,000 to the City, officials said.

"The family has moved out on their own terms, and the previous injunctions have been dissolved," City officials said.