Lloyd Borinstein, known as Darth Landlord for his alleged harassment, discrimination and abuse of tenants at the Fountains apartment complex in Los Angeles, faces trial on October 31, 2005 in Dept. 39 of the Los Angeles Superior Court in a class action-type lawsuit brought by 20 current or former tenants, including several children, who allegedly suffered through two years of his abusive, discriminatory and intimidating tactics. Prominent Los Angeles-area consumer protection attorney Robert F. Brennan will be lead counsel for the tenants.
Hollywood (PRWEB) October 13, 2005 -- When Lloyd Borinstein and one of his companies, F & A Partners, purchased The Fountains apartment complex in Hollywood in late 2001, none of the tenants suspected that a two-year nightmare of harassment, discrimination and intimidation would ensue, as has been alleged in a case about to go to trial in Los Angeles Superior Court (Voltaire, et al. v. F & A Partners, Lloyd Borinstein, et al., Case No. BC 317 622).
"Borinstein's tactics have earned him the nickname "Darth Landlord" among some of the tenants at the Fountains apartment complex," states prominent Los Angeles-area consumer protection attorney Robert F. Brennan of La Crescenta, who is lead counsel for the plaintiffs. Borinstein purchased the complex of small bungalows intending to renovate the bungalows and lease them out at a much higher rental rate, Borinstein said in a deposition. The existing tenants, mostly working-class Latino families, could not even come close to affording the much higher rental rates for the renovated units, and wanted to remain in the existing rent-controlled units, according to the tenants' deposition testimony.
Borinstein allegedly began his effort to get rid of the existing tenants by offering them small sums to move out, but most of the tenants wanted to stay because the rent-controlled rates were all they could afford.
When they refused to move out, Borinstein then allegedly began his campaign of discrimination, harassment and intimidation, according to the lawsuit.
According to sworn testimony from witnesses, Borinstein instructed his residential managers to forbid the children in the complex from playing in the courtyard, leaving them no outdoor place to play as there are no nearby parks and the neighborhood is unsafe. The children were effectively locked into the small, stuffy bungalows during hot summer months.
Witnesses have testified that he delayed making any needed repairs to the existing apartments. In other testimony, it was alleged that he had his residential manager put three-day eviction notices on the doors of the existing tenants on the very next day after the rent was due, not giving them even three days to pay rent before threatening eviction. These same witnesses have testified that he instructed his residential managers to take away the parking spaces of the existing tenants in favor of the new tenants, leaving the existing tenants to search for parking along Fountain Avenue in East Hollywood, where parking is scarce and cars are not safe.
Of course, according to deposition testimony from witnesses, these harsh rules did not apply to the tenants who lived in the renovated units and who were paying the higher rent.
Borinstein went through two sets of residential managers who testified that they were not comfortable with his alleged efforts to rid the apartment complex of its existing tenants. He then hired Rick Scott and Ray Aguilar. Sworn testimony from witnesses demonstrates that Scott and Aguilar, allegedly acting on Borinsteins direction to get rid of the existing tenants, began an outrageous campaign of harassment and intimidation. Witnesses have testified that apartment units were broken into and vandalized the tenants food and personal property. Several witnesses also testified that water sprinklers in the common courtyard were turned on while children were trying to play.
While this was all going on, Borinstein allegedly did nothing to check Scotts and Aguilars behavior.
Finally, one of the tenants, Varlin Voltaire, stood up to Borinstein, Scott and Aguilar. Voltaire then allegedly became their primary target. Scott and Aguilar allegedly broke into Voltaires apartment without his permission, and allegedly filed false police reports alleging assaults by Voltaire which never occurred. Voltaire was held in jail overnight and stood trial before the court and the police threw out the charges.
Voltaire and the other tenants then brought suit for this 2-year pattern of allegedly wrongful and deliberate harassment. Borinstein, the prominent general partner of numerous real estate limited partnerships which own several apartment complexes around Los Angeles, ultimately fired Scott and Aguilar, allegedly in an effort to distance himself from the outrageous and abusive conduct he had set into motion.
But the group of 20 tenants, which includes a half-dozen children, will not let Darth Landlord get away so easily.
The Force is with the tenants, states Brennan. Darth Landlord and his empire are going to learn and learn well that theres a way to do business and a way not to do business. When someone like Borinstein resorts to flagrant abuse and intimidation just so he can line his own pockets in our real estate market, he needs to have a jury tell him the difference between right and wrong. And since the only language Darth Landlord speaks is money, this is exactly the language the jury will be speaking.
The tenants are seeking unspecified damages for violation of civil rights, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and breach of their tenants' rights.
Borinstein and F & A Partners face punitive liability for their wrongful acts. The case is expected to last for the entire month of November 2005.
About us: Robert F. Brennan, Esq. and his firm, Brennan, Wiener & Associates, 3150 Montrose Ave., La Crescenta, Ca., handle a variety of consumer protection lawsuits including class actions and mass actions by tenants against abusive landlords.