Lawsuit Over Limit on Tenants Revived : Ruling Returns Challenge of Overcrowding Ordinance to Court

A state appellate court Thursday revived a lawsuit challenging Santa Ana’s right to limit the number of people who can live in one residence.

The suit was filed in 1986 by two families who were served eviction notices because four to five people were living in each one-bedroom apartment. The city contends that these were overcrowded conditions that violated a city ordinance.

Thursday’s ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana overturned a decision by former Superior Court Judge Harmon G. Scoville, who dismissed the suit because the tenants had moved out of the apartment building a month after the suit was filed.

Dismissal Set Aside

City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said the ruling reversed the issue of legal standing but does not address the merit of the lawsuit. “It set aside the dismissal, and we (go) back (to) court again to resolve the underlying issues,” he said.

City inspectors issued a notice to the landlord declaring the apartments overcrowded and substandard and ordered Pedro Sanchez, his wife and their three children out of their one-bedroom unit in the 1100 block of West Highland Avenue.

Maria Reyes and Victor Quintero, who lived in a similar apartment with their two children, were also evicted.

According to the ordinance, there must be 70 square feet of “habitable room” for the first two people and 50 square feet for each additional person. The bedroom floor space in both units was about 128 square feet--far less than the limit imposed by the city’s housing code, city officials said.

The lawsuit contends that the city misinterpreted the code by not including the 200-square-foot living room, which the families used as a sleeping area.

Calculations Vary

The city contends that if the living room is included in the calculations, it would allow up to seven people to live in a one-bedroom apartment, the suit says.

The Superior Court agreed with the city that the tenants had no legal standing because they moved out of the apartments a month after filing the lawsuit. The case was dismissed and the trial never took place.

But the appellate court ruled that the families do not have to live in the city to file a suit. Scoville, who is now presiding justice of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, did not take part in the decision.

The Santa Ana City Council has strongly supported enforcement of the ordinance.

Meanwhile, immigrant rights groups say the ordinance is the stiffest in California and discriminates against lower-income Latino families, many of which have more than one or two children. Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, which is providing legal assistance in this case, has sought to have the policy declared unlawful.