You Betcha, Just Ask East Palo Alto—As the Next Post Shows.
Page Mill Properties, the largest residential landlord in East Palo Alto, has been doing battle in court with the city over the proper interpretation of certain rent exemption decisions made by the East Palo Alto Rent Stabilization Board under the local rent stabilization ordinance.
Can these types of ordinances result in fee shifting? Yes they can. See the ordinance for East Palo Alto, Section XV.A.5.
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman, earlier this month, ordered East Palo Alto to pay Page Mill $472,062 (out of a requested $731,778) in attorney’s fees incurred by the landlord after city lost court judgments involving rent stabilization ordinances with mandatory fee shifting provisions. (City has spent an estimated $300,000 in fees itself, although spread out in 10 active lawsuits with Page Mill.) Although granting fees, Judge Freeman did observe that “the court is struck by the unreasonable number of issues raised without any likely success, and the court is somewhat amazed by the overall number of hours devoted to prosecuting this case.”
For more on this rent stabilization dispute, see Jessica Bernstein-Wax’s article “Page Mill files new suit against East Palo Alto alleging rent board wrongly denied exemption claims,” in the April 11, 2009 MercuryNews.com.
BLOG UNDERVIEW—East Palo Alto is not alone in having a rent stabilization ordinance with a fee shifting provision. San Rafael has one, also, as described in our September 22, 2008 post on the unpublished decision in Contempo Marin Homeowners Assn. v. Manufactured Homes Communities.
We note that the fee shifting provision in the East Palo Alto ordinance provides: “In any civil proceeding that a landlord or tenant initiates to enforce his/her right under this ordinance, the prevailing party shall be entitled to reasonable attorney’s fee as determined by the court.” Because we have only read reports of the decision, we can only surmise that Judge Freeman interpreted the ordinance broadly to include include the city, which was not a landlord or a tenant.