The nation’s largest railroad is being sued by a group of former tenants of a Union Pacific-owned residential building near downtown Los Angeles, who say that conditions were so deplorable that cockroaches, bed bugs and spiders crawled across them at night as they tried to sleep.
The 14 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking more than $2 million on allegations that include negligence, failure to provide habitable premises and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A Union Pacific spokesman did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The suit filed Monday states that the residents, many on fixed incomes, all left the building on South Mission Road in January, two months after the Fire Department issued an order that they depart due to “the obvious health and safety risks the slum conditions posed.”
The tenants ranged in age from 19 to 76 and all paid rent according to the terms of verbal leases with management, according to the complaint, which says the building was subject to the city’s rent control ordinance because it was constructed in 1940. All owners of structures with two or more dwelling units built before October 1978 must abide by the ordinance, the suit states.
The complaint says that UP acquired the building sometime before 2011, but no exact date is given. It was formerly a warehouse and is located directly next to train tracks, causing the structure to shake each time a train rolled by, according to the plaintiffs.
UP and its managers “failed to obtain the necessary permits to convert the building to residential building units, including failing to obtain a certificate of occupancy,” the suit alleges.
Many of the floors and walls have decaying and rotting wood and one resident almost fell through his front steps because the wood was in such poor condition, according to the lawsuit.
The plumbing was dysfunctional, none of the units had heat, and the residents once went two to three days without hot water, the suit says. The ex- tenants say they feared being robbed because there were no lights in the common area or the surrounding lot.
Numerous burglaries occurred at the building and one resident was awakened by a thief running over her roof, the suit alleges.
“Plaintiffs constantly struggled with sleeplessness, as plaintiffs often saw cockroaches, bed bugs and spiders crawl across their bodies in the middle of the night,” according to the lawsuit.
The conditions caused many residents to develop colds and rashes, according to the suit, which says tenants were forced to dispose of food contaminated by cockroach and mice feces.
“Plaintiffs could not even receive mail at the building since there was no official residential address provided to them,” the suit alleges.
— City News Service