Landlord-Tenant Dispute Goes to Trial : Lawsuit: At issue in the 7-year-old battle is who is liable for the run-down conditions at two apartment buildings in Santa Ana.
It has been a long time coming, but after more than six years of legal battles, landlord Carmine Esposito and his tenants will finally have their day in court.
The trial, now in jury selection, is yet another step in one of the most bitter and highly publicized landlord-tenant disputes in the county. At least 67 tenants accused Esposito of maintaining substandard units at six of his apartment buildings on West Brook Street.
The Municipal Court trial, expected to last at least six weeks, will focus on two of the buildings and on whether Esposito or the tenants should be held liable for the run-down condition of the buildings.
The battle dates back to 1985, when 70 tenants filed a series of civil suits claiming they lived in roach- and vermin-infested squalor and that the landlord took little or no action when they complained about holes in the walls, corroded plumbing and short-circuited electrical units, among other substandard amenities. To force Esposito’s hand, the tenants, with the aid of several nonprofit groups, participated in what is believed to be the first organized rent strike in the county.
During the strike, a judge ordered that the tenants pay reduced rents to a court-appointed receiver, who, in turn, dispersed part of the money to Esposito for building repairs.
While the rent rebellion was in full swing, the city of Santa Ana also filed a 95-count criminal lawsuit against the landlord. He later paid $70,000 to the city to have the charges dropped in that case.
Meanwhile, the tenants named Esposito and his wife, Mirian, as defendants in their suits, claiming emotional and physical distress and asking for compensatory damages.
Esposito, 63, of Anaheim countersued the tenants, claiming that they were partly responsible for the blighted buildings because they overcrowded the apartments and kept them in unsanitary conditions. In his suit, Esposito also asked for damages, alleging that the tenants wrongly carried out the rent strike.
James R. Wakefield, Esposito’s attorney, said the landlord has made considerable headway in repairing the units since 1985, spending more than $500,000.
“We have completely renovated those units, replaced bathtubs and plumbings and everything else in those units,” Wakefield said Thursday. “But, no sooner was the property repaired . . . than it gets trashed again. You can only do so much.”
Attorney Stuart M. Parker, representing the tenants, admitted that repairs have been made but said tenants are still living in “squalid” conditions. Furthermore, he said, Esposito’s claim that tenants should partly be held responsible is “an old excuse used by landlords.”
“There’s still a lot that needs to be done,” Parker said. “They’re definitely not living in a rosy setting.”
Parker said he hopes that if his clients win, Esposito will settle out of court in suits involving the other four buildings.
Three of the original tenants who filed suits have settled with Esposito out of court. One tenant agreed to receive $19,000; the amounts of the other settlements weren’t released. And, though half of the remaining plaintiffs have left the apartments, they still are entitled to damages incurred while they were tenants there, Parker said.
Because a Superior Court judge earlier ruled that if damages were awarded, the amount would be capped at $25,000 per person, the case has been assigned to Municipal Court in Santa Ana.
