RENTERS SUE MOBILE-HOME PARK OWNERS; RESIDENTS ALLEGE FRAUD, CONTRACT BREACH AT WESTLAKE SITE.Byline: Kevin F. Sherry sherry [from Jérez], naturally dry fortified wine, pale amber to brown in tint. The term sherry originally referred to wines made from grapes grown in the region of Jérez de la Frontera, Andalusia, Spain; today it may refer to any of the Daily News Staff Writer Eleven renters at Oak Forest Mobile Estates have filed a lawsuit against the mobile-home park's owners. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Superior Court, accuses the park and its owners of fraud, breach of contract and infliction in·flic·tion n. 1. The act or process of imposing or meting out something unpleasant. 2. Something, such as punishment, that is inflicted. Noun 1. of emotional distress emotional distress n. an increasingly popular basis for a claim of damages in lawsuits for injury due to the negligence or intentional acts of another. Originally damages for emotional distress were only awardable in conjunction with damages for actual physical harm. . Park owner Julie Chaikin said she had not been served a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment. Owner Richard O'Hara did not return phone calls seeking comment. The lawsuit asks for punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer. as well as restitution In the context of Criminal Law, state programs under which an offender is required, as a condition of his or her sentence, to repay money or donate services to the victim or society; with respect to maritime law, the restoration of articles lost by jettison, done when the for alleged overcharging on rent and for failing to create a discount for residents who fell into ``needy'' or ``hardship'' categories. Chaikin ``never gave lower rent to anyone,'' said Marie Kaupisch, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. ``My issue is really discrimination.'' Oak Forest is the only mobile-home park in Westlake Village. The issues involved in the lawsuit date back more than a decade. In 1987, the park's owners sued Westlake Village for $1 million to end rent control in the city. Park owners wanted to sell the rental spaces to the mobile-home owners and 130 of the park's 162 renters took them up on the deal. To settle the suit, the city lifted rent control while the park agreed to increase the cost to the remaining 32 renters by 10 percent the first year, 12.5 percent the second and 15 percent the third until market rates were achieved. ``There's also a big issue about what the market rent is,'' said Donald Adams
Charles Donald Adams (December 20 1928 – April 8 1996) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in bass-baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Jr., a Ventura attorney representing the plaintiffs. The settlement with the city also mandated that the park create the special class of ``needy'' renters, who would receive rent discounts. Kaupisch is one of the few remaining renters. Her lawsuit alleges that the owners caused ``large increases in rent so as to make the plaintiffs move out of the park,'' thereby freeing the owners from rent control. Kaupisch said she pays $830 a month for a space that she believes should cost her about $600. In a previous interview, O'Hara said the complaining residents were simply people who never found the original appraisals of their units acceptable. Adams said the lawsuit could take about a year to resolve. |
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