Settlement Reached in Suit Against Mobile Home Park

A $900,000 settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed by tenants of a mobile home park outside Corona who contended that the former owners charged excessive rents and provided unsafe living conditions, the tenants’ attorney said Tuesday.

Residents had charged that the former owners, Gerald and Rita Inman and Cindy Inman Tanguay, failed to maintain the park and its recreation area and swimming pool, allowed raw sewage to back up, and provided an unsafe electrical system.

Attorney Ron Endeman of San Diego said that in addition to the cash settlement, the residents will receive $72,625 in rents that had been paid into a trust account. The lawsuit had been filed on behalf of 55 current and former park residents, representing 37 of the 53 mobile home park spaces.

The park was sold to a new owner last year.

Endeman said the complaints about sewage date back to 1975. In addition, the owners charged more rent than originally agreed upon and allowed the park to deteriorate to the point where the homes could not be sold, he said.

Conditions were “abominable,” Endeman said. “There was no way you could swim in the pool. It was black. And there were dangerous things.” He said the owners had allowed power poles to deteriorate to the point that “the poles were leaning against homes. Someone could have been electrocuted.” The sewer system routinely overflowed and the clubhouse “was a shambles,” Endeman said.

Terry R. Dowdall, the Inmans’ attorney, confirmed the settlement but said it had been reached between the tenants and the Inmans’ insurance company, “without the consent of my clients.”

Dowdall called Endeman’s charges about the mobile home park’s condition “untrue or grossly exaggerated.” The problems that existed “were predominantly caused by vandalism by tenants,” Dowdall said.

As for the sewage backup, he said, “the park’s an old park, and there aren’t many people with property that old who haven’t had some backup. In an older park, with the extent of vandalism they had there, those things will happen occasionally.”

Improvements have been made and new homes have moved in, he said. “Those tenants are very happy.” If the case had gone to trial, Dowdall said, “we were looking forward to having the jury look at the park themselves. . . . I think the plaintiffs were lucky with the settlement with the insurance company.”

A spokesman for Foremost Insurance Co. of Redlands said he was not allowed to comment on the case.

Endeman said the case had been set to go to trial Monday.