A judge Thursday denied a request by the Barrington Plaza Tenant Association for a preliminary injunction stopping any evictions at the rent-controlled apartment complex in West Los Angeles pending the outcome of their lawsuit against their landlords.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant said the notice given of the injunction application was “defective on procedural grounds” and that any future the request should be made with Judge Jill Feeney, who will hear the trial of the case.
Chalfant also ordered the attorneys to try and reach an agreement so that landlords Barrington Pacific LLC and Douglas Emmett Inc. will not file any eviction actions until after a hearing on the preliminary injunction.
In their court papers, the tenants’ lawyers argued that the “anticipated evictions” are illegitimate under both local and state law.
“If not enjoined by this court, defendants will have caused the largest mass eviction in Los Angeles history, evicting 558 households from their West Los Angeles apartments,” the tenants’ attorneys argued in their court papers.
But in their response papers, defense attorneys maintained that granting the residents’ injunction request Thursday would not only deprive landords of their right to a regularly noticed hearing and sufficient time to oppose it, but would also “improperly allow emergency relief where there is no emergency.”
The suit was filed June 12 following an announcement by owners last month that the apartment complex — which has been the scene of two fires over the past decade, including one that killed a 19-year-old foreign exchange student — will be closing to all renters and that occupied units must be vacated so the buildings can be renovated with fire sprinklers and other safety upgrades.
The complaint focuses on a state law that allows landlords to evict if they plan to remove the units from the rental market. Passed in 1985, the Ellis Act was created to allow mom-and-pop landlords to go out of the rental business and take the units off the rental market.
However, the suit contends the law is being improperly used to justify evicting tenants.
Eric Rose, a spokesperson for Barrington Plaza, previously said in a statement to City News Service: “We have received the action filed by some of our tenants and are in the process of reviewing the claims made.
“Primarily it is important to note, Barrington Plaza has and is following the rules laid out by the Ellis Act. The units are being removed from the market under the terms of the Ellis Act as well as the City’s implementing ordinances. As has been stated by the City, ownership of Barrington Plaza has been and continues to be uncertain about the ultimate disposition of the units and are preparing for a host of options, inclusive of rehabilitation of the complex to comply with all current fire and life safety requirements. To the extent that the units were brought back onto the rental market, the owner would follow all obligations relative to former tenants as provided in those State and local rules.”
The tenant suit maintains that the landlord can make the safety upgrades without permanently displacing them. A majority of the building’s tenants are a mix of retirees, working-class and white-collar workers and students.