Residents win $1.3 million lawsuit against landlord

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Residents win $1.3 million lawsuit against landlord

Inside Bay Area - Oakland,CA*

By Barbara Grady, Staff Writer

Article Last Updated: 11/16/2007

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7485533

OAKLAND _ Twelve immigrant families who lived in a dilapidated,

unheated, mold- and cockroach-infested apartment building won a $1.3

million legal settlement against their landlord.

The suit, settled Tuesday, charged the landlord, Roosevelt Owyang of

San Francisco, with breach of contract in not providing a habitable

dwelling at the complex at 314 to 324 105th Ave.

The suit said Owyang owns numerous properties in Oakland, San

Francisco and elsewhere in California.

Former tenants who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit said rain water

leaked into their apartments from windows and ceilings so the

apartments were constantly damp. Mold was thick. Cockroaches were

everywhere and stairway railings and floorboards were often broken.

``My son had so many ear infections that now he has to wear a

hearing aid,'' said former tenant Berenice Victor. ``It was very

cold, the heat did not go into the bedrooms and he got many colds.''

Victor and her husband and three children lived at the 105th Avenue

complex for about a decade but now live in . Along with the

son's hearing damage, her daughter developed asthma.

Numerous other plaintiffs developed asthma along with the 39 former

and current residents who are party to the suit, according to the

complaint filed in State Superior Court in Alameda County. Several

others had chronic sinusitis and upper respiratory problems.

``The conditions that existed there _ mold, moisture, cockroaches _

are all the vectors for asthma and respiratory problems,'' said the

plaintiffs' lead attorney Wartelle of Wartelle, Weaver and

Schreiber in San Francisco.

One young girl had to be brought to the hospital because a cockroach

was stuck in her ear, the suit said. That incident led her father,

r, to seek out a legal remedy to force the landlord to

exterminate the building and conduct other repairs; r said

previous requests to the landlord were ignored.

r contacted Sentinel Fair Housing, a housing advocacy group in

Oakland, which helped the tenants file a law suit.

Wartelle said the case, unfortunately, was not unusual. Certain

landlords neglect inner-city apartment buildings and allow them to

fall into disrepair and become infested, he said.

``What is unusual is the size of the settlement, that we got the

evidence to make the case against him for that size of a

settlement,'' Wartelle said.

``I think it will send a strong message to the slumlord community,''

he continued. ``There is a feeling that Hispanic immigrants can be

cheated with impunity. This shows they are not passive and not

willing to live in anything.''

Victor said that in addition to the 12 families, or 39 residents,

who were plaintiffs in the suit, other families lived in the

building but didn't have residency papers and so were afraid to join

the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that Owyang contended the residents could not speak

English so never communicated to him that there were problems.

Victor, however, speaks near perfect English and the lawsuit said a

number of the plaintiffs spoke English.

Contact Barbara Grady at 510-208-6427 or bgrady@....