Eviction of tenant improper, judge rules

May 18, 2008

Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Patriot-News*

BY MATT MILLER Of Our Cumberland County Bureau

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It was illegal for officials of a West Shore apartment complex to

evict a tenant after allegedly finding his apartment full of

garbage, rodents and mold, a Cumberland County judge has ruled.

They should have sought court approval first, President Judge Edgar

B. Bayley concluded.

Under state law, landlords must secure permission of the court,

usually a district judge, before evicting a tenant.

Bayley's finding, issued last week, is only a partial victory for

Bruce B. Kislan of Camp Hill, who is suing the owners of Fairmont

Park Apartments of Wormleysburg for more than $50,000 in damages.

The judge didn't award monetary damages. C. , Kislan's

attorney, said the damages issue will be resolved by a jury or

through a settlement.

Kislan's April 2006 eviction occurred after he called Fairmont

officials because water was leaking into his apartment from a broken

pipe in a unit upstairs.

Kislan, who had lived at the complex since the mid-1990s, claimed he

came home from work to find Fairmont officials had condemned his

apartment and placed his belongings outside. They wouldn't allow him

inside, even to get medicine he was taking after suffering a stroke,

he said.

A maintenance worker retrieved his medicine, he said. He claimed his

property was soiled and soggy, about $15,000 worth of it was lost or

ruined, and he couldn't find his checkbook and some credit cards.

Kislan, who checked into a motel, contested the claim that his

apartment was a health hazard.

Fairmont officials said they had to act promptly because the

apartment's " abhorrent condition " placed Kislan and other tenants at

risk. Kislan breached his lease by allowing the squalor, they said.

But Bayley found that the owners violated the state's Landlord and

Tenant Act, which calls for court oversight of evictions. He said

they could have had the local codes enforcement officer determine if

Kislan's apartment should have been condemned as a health hazard.

MATT MILLER: 249-2006 or mmiller@...

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