Judge rules that displaced renter should be paid
A Santa Monica man has been ordered to pay $4,300 to his former tenant after he evicted him, a judge ruled Friday.
Giulio Della Rocca claimed Kent Wagerman was illegally sub-leasing his rent-controlled apartment on 20th Street and therefore he shouldn’t have to pay him to move.
Under the state’s Ellis Act, Della Rocca was allowed to evict four tenants when he converted the apartment complex into his own home last year. But the law requires that tenants who fall under rent control be paid a relocation fee if they are “Ellised” out of the building and their annual income is less than $24,900.
Wagerman, a restaurant waiter, provided income tax returns to Santa Monica Superior Court Judge John Reid that showed he was entitled to the relocation money because his income was below the Ellis requirement.
But what was central to the arguments heard in Friday’s court proceedings was whether or not Wagerman illegally rented out his one-bedroom apartment to another man.
Della Rocca said when he was closing escrow early last year he learned that a different tenant was living in Wagerman’s apartment. Within days of learning the building was up for sale, Wagerman moved back into his apartment and the sub-leaser moved out, Della Rocca said.
He argued that Wagerman is entitled to the relocation money if he was living in the building for 12 months prior to be evicted, which he wasn’t, Della Rocca claimed.
Della Rocca showed several piece of mail that he had collected at the complex that were addressed to a man named James Eastman, the person who was living in Wagerman’s apartment.
Judge Reid gave little thought to the mail Della Rocca provided as evidence, arguing that it’s common for mail to show up at the wrong address. What he was more concerned about was whether Wagerman was living in the apartment when Della Rocca purchased the building.
Wagerman said he didn’t sub-lease the apartment — he only allowed Eastman to stay there while he was away on business — which was four months in 1999.
“My name is the one on the lease and I was on the one evicted,” Wagerman said. “Even if I did sublet, it’s up to the (old) landlord.”
Reid, who was unfamiliar with the Ellis Act, ordered that Della Rocca pay Wagerman the $4,250 in relocation fees and $50 in court fees.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 13, 2002. Read the original PDF.