Landlords pay to settle suit
CITY HALL — Two local landlords have agreed to pay $60,000 in attorney fees and damages to a female tenant after the woman filed a lawsuit alleging that they tried to scare her into vacating her rent-controlled apartment.
City Hall’s Consumer Protection Unit filed the lawsuit in April 2004 against Marshall Robert Burnett, Dan Kolodziejski and L.T. Belton. The suit claimed that when the men acquired the four-unit apartment building at 2710 Arizona Ave. in January 2004, the only apartment occupied at the time was by a tenant who is disabled and pays $422 per month under Rent Control. The men were accused of conspiring to frighten her into moving in order to increase the property value of the building.
In late 2003, the tenant approached city attorneys responsible for enforcing the tenant harassment ordinance. After some investigation, they decided to pursue civil litigation against the landlords, said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinksy.
“It got to our office because the tenant filed a complaint, complaining about harassment,” he said.
The tenant also retained a private attorney, Gary Rhoades of Los Angeles, and brought a private lawsuit against Burnett and Kolodziejski. The two civil cases were consolidated for trial in the Santa Monica Superior Court. The settlement was approved in March.
The lawsuits alleged that Burnett and Kolodziejski placed Belton as the manager in the apartment next door to the tenant’s for the sole purpose of frightening and intimidating her into leaving. City Hall alleged that Belton routinely pounded on the tenant’s walls and slammed doors late at night; broke into her private locked storage area; called her profane and insulting names; threatened to burn down the building while the woman was inside; flooded her kitchen floor with a hose from outside; and stood outside her door or window for long periods of time.
None of the allegations were proven since the case was settled out of court.
Burnett and Kolodziejski denied any wrongdoing. Their attorney, Will Lieb, declined to comment.
Burnett and Kolodziejski, both licensed realtors on the Westside, sold the property in November 2004 to a new owner, who reportedly lives on the premises with other tenants, including the disabled woman, who has lived in her apartment for 25 years.
The two lawsuits were settled at the same time after a mediation before Judge Patricia Collins of the Santa Monica Superior Court.
Under the terms of the settlement, Burnett and Kolodziejski paid the tenant $45,000; paid City Hall $15,000 in attorneys’ fees; and each will attend an eight-hour training program in apartment management approved by the city.
City Hall’s lawsuit was brought under the local Tenant Harassment Ordinance, which is designed to protect renters from landlords who harass or intimidate them in an attempt to force them out so rents can be raised to market rate.
The City Attorney’s Office can either file criminal or civil charges against landlords under the ordinance.
“The Tenant Harassment Ordinance goes both ways,” Radinsky said. “We can go either criminal or civil...most of the filings are civil.”
Since the ordinance went into effect in 1995, dozens of landlords have been taken to court for harassment, and more tenants’ rights have been protected, “That is what the ordinance is designed to do,” Radinsky said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 22, 2006. Read the original PDF.