4 Landlords Drop Suits Against Tenants’ Groups

Four Santa Ana landlords have quietly dropped a series of federal lawsuits against groups representing low-income tenants and have paid $15,000 in court-ordered fines.

The landlords included Carmine Esposito, a prominent target for rent strikers protesting substandard living conditions in Santa Ana.

The four lawsuits, filed in federal court last year, were considered to be the landlords’ legal counteroffensive to a historic tenants’ strike and later action by the city of Santa Ana to crack down on poor housing conditions.

The other landlords were Pablo Sarabia, James. B. Isbill and Wayne Browning. The four had claimed that the Orange County Legal Aid Society, as well as other political and legal representatives of the striking tenants, conspired to violate the owners’ constitutional rights.

A federal judge last fall, after allowing lawyers for the landlords several opportunities to rework their claim, rejected the suits as “baseless.” The landlords, who were represented by attorney Nick O’Malley, were ordered to reimburse the tenants’ groups a portion of the cost of defending the case.

While the landlords first indicated they would appeal, court papers filed in the cases Monday showed that they have dropped plans for appeal and have paid the sum of $15,000.

Each of the four owners was ordered to pay $1,945 to the Legal Aid Society chapter. Each also was ordered to pay $1,100 to tenants’ attorney Richard L. Spix. The rest of the money was paid to Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, an immigrant rights group, and to the David Coalition for Housing, a tenants’ support group.

Dan Stormer, who represented the Legal Aid Society in the case, said another round of largely identical lawsuits filed in Orange County Superior Court is pending. Stormer said motions soon will be filed seeking dismissal of the lawsuits as groundless, along with parallel requests for sanctions against the landlords.