Santa Monica : Board Must Pay Legal Fees

A judge has ordered the Rent Control Board to pay legal fees of $332,000 to attorneys who challenged the board’s right to hear complaints against landlords who charged illegally high rents.

The fee ruling by Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Joel Rudof caps a legal battle that began in 1983 and went all the way to the state Supreme Court, which issued a mixed ruling in 1989.

At that time, the rent board claimed victory because its right to decide excess rent claims was upheld in a precedent-setting ruling that affirmed the power of quasi-judicial administrative bodies around the state.

But attorneys for the landlords also claimed victory because the ruling limited the power of those administrative bodies and outlawed the Santa Monica rent board’s practice at the time of assessing triple damages against landlords who violated the city’s tough rent control law.

In 1991, a state Court of Appeal ruling that essentially declared the landlords the winners in the case paved the way for them to seek reimbursement of legal fees from the rent board.

Rent board attorney Tony Trendacosta said he was stunned at the size of the attorneys’ fees, awarded mostly to the former and current firms of Christopher Harding, who filed the original case on behalf of landlord Haidy McHugh.

“We won a substantial victory,” Trendacosta said. “For that, this agency pays $300,000 to the lawyer of the person who broke the law by charging excess rent.”

The rent board is a self-supporting agency that raises its operating costs from an $11-a-month fee per unit paid by landlords, who pass along the cost to tenants. Rent board officials said the fine will probably preclude a lowering of the fee next year.