Landlords seek injunction against LA eviction ban

A federal judge lamented that landlords and tenants are "pitted against each other" in a lawsuit seeking to enjoin a Los Angeles' city ordinance banning evictions and rental collection during the pandemic.

"It's a tragedy that the lack of an adequate economic solution has essentially caused what we're dealing with, which is economic warfare," U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson said during a virtual hearing Monday. "It's a tragedy that the fine people on both sides of this lawsuit have to be pitted against each other."

The lawsuit filed by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles seeks to halt enforcement of the Los Angeles eviction moratorium, arguing it is much broader than the statewide eviction ban included in Assembly Bill 3088, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 1.

Represented by Douglas Dennington of Rutan & Tucker LLP, landlords asked Pregerson to preliminarily halt implementation of the city ordinance because the city refuses to defer to the statewide statute as other cities have.

While landlords certainly do not endorse the statewide eviction ban, Dennington said, it at least offers them some protections. Under AB 3088, tenants cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent due between Sept. 1, 2020 and Jan. 31, 2021 if they sign declarations of COVID-19-related financial distress under penalty of perjury and pay 25% of that rent by Jan. 31, 2021.

"That is a very real benefit to landlords who are being hurt by having to furnish housing with no revenue from the tenants seeking protections under the city ordinances and AB 3088," Dennington said. "It's not a complete benefit, but it's something."

Tenants' rights advocates argue that pandemic-related job loss will lead to a tsunami of evictions that will come crashing down on the court system once moratoriums are lifted and that if the city ordinance is enjoined, it will lead to an increase in homelessness.

Intervening on behalf of the city and representing advocacy group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, Rohit D. Nath of Susman Godfrey LLP, said landlords have, like tenants, been provided relief during the pandemic. Under the federal CARES Act, landlords facing mortgage payments may seek an extension, and take advantage of a $100 million city fund designed to directly provide them with a portion of the rental payments due, Natch said.

"The ordinance has been in effect for several months and during the entirety of that time, [the apartment association] has claimed the sky is falling," Nath said. "But the best they have been able to do is provide a handful of declarations. They haven't found a single landlord who has even faced a notice of foreclosure because landlords have been able to take advantage of parallel protection for landlords."

The lawsuit was filed in June after Mayor Eric Garcetti and the LA City Council implemented an emergency ordinance banning evictions, charging of late fees or annual rent increases in response to the economic shutdown ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The apartment association argues the ordinance interferes in the contracts between landlords and their tenants, and violates landlords' rights under the contract and due process clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Apartment Association of Los Angeles County, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 20-cv-05193 (C.D. Cal., led June 11, 2020).

Pregerson, who seemed swayed by both sides' arguments during the two-hour hearing, said while he does have a tentative ruling "in my mind," he would not reveal it. He later said he would take the matter under submission.