An accused slumlord brushed off complaints by tenants about rodent infestation at his 26-unit South Los Angeles apartment building, according to an excerpt of his deposition testimony shown to a jury Wednesday.
“I mean, downtown L.A. is full of mice,” Franco Haiem said in explaining why he could not do anything about the conditions.
Wednesday was the second day of trial in Los Angeles Superior Court of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the tenants at 2108 Maple Ave. in July 2013. Among the allegations are negligence, breach of the implied warranty of habitability, premises liability, intentional infliction of emotional distress and unlawful collection of rent.
In their court papers, defense attorneys say many of the tenants never notified their landlord of any problems and that repairs were prevented when the residents changed the locks on their doors without notifying management. The lawyers also say the residents knew of the conditions there when they chose to sign their lease agreements.
Haiem’s deposition was one of many items analyzed by property manager Stephen Donell, who was hired by attorneys representing more than 90 tenants suing Haiem’s company, Bracha Investments LLC. Bracha Investments owned the building from July 2008 until December 2012.
Donell said Haiem also testified in his deposition that he could not remember if he saw the inside of the building or talked to the tenants before he bought it.
Donell said he reviewed documents and found 150 to 200 housing violations at the three-story structure. He testified the problems were among the worst he has seen in more than 30 years as a property manager.
“The conditions were extremely severe,” he said. “There were roaches crawling in people’s ears and getting inside electronics. It was very unusual to seem them crawling around in the daytime and that meant they were out foraging because of overcrowding within the walls.”
Donell said the current owner spent about $7,000 and successfully eradicated the rodent and insect problem.
Earlier today, tenant organizer Amelia Fay-Berquist testified that the apartment building was previously owned by Frank McHugh, a slumlord sentenced to 48 months of probation and forbidden from managing any residential property in the city because of the deteriorated conditions at more than 100 buildings. She said she set up a meeting with Haiem after learning that some of the conditions that tenants complained of under McHugh were not corrected by their new landlord.
Fay-Berquist said her first meeting with Haiem took place in 2011 at a Starbucks downtown. She said she told him that tenants were unhappy with seeing cockroaches and rodents running free in the building, that plumbing often failed to work and that his on-site manager and maintenance man were both often under the influence.
“He said he would deal with their drinking,” she said. “He offered a $10 rent reduction every month so the tenants could buy a can of Raid,”
Fay-Berquist said she witnessed the maintenance man drunk and smoking indoors during one of her visits. She said that after she told him to go outside if he wanted to smoke, he threw his cigarette to the carpet and stomped on it with one foot.
Fay-Berquist said she did not believe Haiem when he said he had financial problems because he once drove her in a brand new Mercedes Benz.
She said he became upset during a visit to his property by city inspectors.
“He was really distressed,” she said. “He told me, ‘Just keep the city out of my building, I’ll do anything you say,”‘ according to Fay- Berquist.
Fay-Berquist described for jurors a series of photos she took at the structure, some depicting mouse and cockroach droppings and others showing mold on walls.
One photo depicted a mouse at the bottom of a vase.
“I saw this thing jumping, so I asked the tenant, ‘Did you guys get a frog?”‘ Fay-Berquist testified.
Another image depicted a resident’s unopened bag of rice that was laden with mouse droppings.
“The mice still managed to chew their way in,” Fay-Berquist said.
A set of steps in another photo were strewn with debris.
“They were just really dirty stairs,” she said.
Fay-Berquist said she worked for the Inner City Law Center while assisting Haiem’s tenants, but that she later left to pursue graduate studies in public health at UCLA.
— City News Service