GARDEN GROVE, SANTA ANA : Suit’s Conspiracy Charges Dismissed

A Superior Court commissioner Thursday dismissed civil conspiracy allegations that were filed by several landlords against the Legal Aid Society of Orange County and two lawyers who helped hundreds of tenants mount a rent strike in 1985.

Commissioner Ronald L. Bauer said that Legal Aid, its executive director, Robert J. Cohen, and former Legal Aid lawyer Richard L. Spix were engaging in “conduct that any lawyer should eagerly and proudly undertake . . . vigorous representation” of poor clients who have limited access to legal counsel.

“They’re entitled to that, and lawyers are entitled to give it to them,” Bauer said.

With that, Bauer dismissed allegations of intentional misconduct and conspiracy to interfere with the landlords’ business, which were part of a lawsuit filed by landlords James B. Isbill, Carmine Esposito and Pablo V. Sarabia.

“I certainly feel lighter,” Cohen said after the ruling. “If we’re going to be a Legal Aid Society, we have to be out there telling people what their rights are.”

The landlords contended that Legal Aid, Cohen and Spix conspired to deprive them of their right to do business by urging poor Santa Ana tenants to pay their rent into an escrow account until their landlords made repairs to their apartments and by advising them how to fend off eviction.

Isbill’s lawyer, Nick O’Malley, contended the lawyers urged tenants to damage their property and “fomented” litigation by urging them to file suit.

At their peak, the rent strikes in Santa Ana and Garden Grove involved more than 500 tenants. Tenants’ rights lawyers said that some are still conducting a rent strike and others are pressing lawsuits against their landlords to force repairs and win damages. Some of them have won. Others are fighting eviction in court.

Conspiracy allegations still remain against Hermandad Nacional Mexicana--where Spix now works--Hermandad director Nativo Lopez and Hermandad’s legal center. Lawyers sought to have those dismissed Thursday, but Bauer said their court documents were not properly drafted. Their lawyer, Stuart M. Parker, said he would rework the papers and resubmit them.

The landlords filed similar actions in federal court in 1987, but they were dismissed, and the landlords were fined $15,000 for filing them.