$2.5-Million Settlement in Tenants’ Suit Against Avol

Tenants who endured rats, cockroaches, broken plumbing and collapsed ceilings in a run-down building in downtown Los Angeles will receive $2.5 million in an out-of-court settlement of their lawsuit against the building’s owner, convicted slumlord Milton Avol.

The award, described by attorneys as the largest such settlement of a landlord-tenant suit in California, will mean average payments of $30,000 to $35,000 each to 70 families who sued Avol in 1985 for slum conditions at 1821 and 1839 S. Main St.

“We hope it will give a clear signal to those who run buildings in dilapidated conditions,” said Barrett S. Litt, a Los Angeles attorney who represented the tenants, along with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, “that it will cost them a great deal of money to do so, and it’s in their own best economic interest to clean up the buildings.”

Avol, a 63-year-old Beverly Hills resident and physician, is best known as the first landlord in the city of Los Angeles to be forced by the courts to serve a 30-day jail sentence in one of his own run-down buildings after he failed to make repairs.

Once described by Deputy City Atty. Stephanie Sautner as “the most recalcitrant slumlord in Los Angeles,” Avol has been the defendant in a variety of criminal complaints and probation violations by the city attorney’s office dating back more than a decade.

Most recently, he served 55 days of a nine-month sentence, beginning last Christmas Eve, after failing to correct slum conditions at three buildings he owned--two of which were the Main Street buildings.

“The case was settled . . . because all the parties deemed it appropriate to put an end to the litigation, to the risks and the uncertainties and the expense involved,” Paul Hittelman, Avol’s attorney said. “This is in no way an admission of liability by the defendants.”

Defendants in the suit along with Avol were his wife, Ann, and Hyoung and Sook Pak, who bought the building from Avol in 1986. Hyoung Pak served a 30-day sentence in the 1821 S. Main building this year after pleading guilty to nine counts of city health, building and safety code violations.

Building Improvements

Under terms of the settlement, the Paks will pay about 10% of the settlement costs, Michael Bodaken of the Legal Aid Foundation said at a press conference held in the spanking clean lobby of 1839 S. Main, where new flooring had recently been installed and the walls painted. Several of the apartments have been completely redone as well.

Bodaken said the money for the improvements stemmed from a 1986 court order that prevented Avol from profiting from his sale of the building and then ordered proceeds to go for repairs.

Last month, the four-story brick buildings changed hands again, but Bodaken said the new owner, Anthony Barras Ltd., had entered into an agreement with Legal Aid to make complete repairs.

Herminia Cobarrubias, a tenant in 1839 S. Main St. for seven years, said she and her five children lived through rat and rodent infestation, gang activities and drunks roaming the halls because of a lack of security. She was surprised at the settlement, she said. “I wasn’t really expecting it” and added that she hoped it would be enough for “a down payment on a house.”

Manuela Carbajol, a tenant leader in the building, said she hoped to use the money coming to her “to put down on some sort of business so I can have a better life.”

The case against Avol was one of a growing number of suits, about a dozen to date, against landlords for injuries suffered from living in slum conditions, Bodaken said.

He said the Avol suit teamed Legal Aid lawyers seeking injunctions to force Avol and later the Paks to make repairs, with a private attorney, Litt, seeking damages for injuries suffered by tenants. Litt said he will receive contingency fees of one-third of each award paid to adult plaintiffs in the case, and one-fourth for each child. The 70 families are composed of 319 adults and children.

In early 1987, a similar suit by 47 families living in a deteriorating building on Vermont Avenue against its owner, the Noori Mehta Trust, was settled. The trust was headed by another once-notorious local slumlord, Surya Gupta. In that case, 185 adults and children received $610,000.

The largest jury award to date has been $1.83 million to 100 tenants of a building on South Berendo Street owned by former San Diego City Councilman Michael Schaefer. Tenant payments have been delayed, however, while Schaefer sought protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Avol now owns only one apartment property in Los Angeles, at 1660 N. Western Ave., which Deputy City Atty. Sautner said has no outstanding violations.