Couple awarded $2.7 million after being harassed by landlord
By J.K. Dineen and Bob Egelko
9/04/2021
A state appeals court has upheld a $2.7 million judgment against a San Francisco landlord accused of terrorizing rent-controlled tenants in an effort to oust them in favor of higher-paying tenants.
The Mission District apartment building where Dale Duncan lived with his wife Marta Munoz and daughter Emilia is seen in San Francisco. Duncan, who lived in the same unit for 21 years, was awarded $2.7 million dollars after a judgment against a San Francisco landlord accused of terrorizing them in an effort to oust them in favor of higher-paying tenants.
Plaintiffs sued their former landlord, a limited liability corporation controlled by Anne Kihagi, charging wrongful eviction and harassment after they were forced from their longtime San Francisco apartment.
A jury found in their favor and awarded them damages that totaled $3,528,000, which the trial court later reduced to $2.7 million. The landlords appealed, and the plaintiffs cross-appealed to challenge the amended and reduced judgment.
The ruling by the First District Court of Appeal is the latest chapter in the legal battles involving Kihagi, who at one point owned 11 San Francisco apartment buildings. In 2017, a state judge ruled against the landlord in a suit filed by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, slapping her with $5.5 million in penalties.
At the time, Superior Court Judge Angela Bradstreet blasted Kihagi and her codefendants for their “persistent pattern of bad faith harassment, retaliation, and fraud” directed at renters and noted their “complete lack of understanding of the unlawfulness of their conduct.”
Duncan moved into a two-bedroom unit in a five-unit building on Hill Street in San Francisco in early 1994. Under his lease, he was responsible for gas and electric, and the landlord was responsible for water and garbage services. Duncan’s wife, Marta Munoz Mendoza, moved there in 2010, and they lived there with their daughter. They never missed or were late with a rent payment.
Dale Duncan and his wife Marta Munoz, photographed in 2015, play with their daughter Emilia at their Mission District apartment in San Francisco. The couple was awarded a $2.7 million judgment against a San Francisco landlord accused of terrorizing them in an effort to oust them in favor of higher-paying tenants.
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In May 2014 the building was sold to Zoriall LLC, whose owners included Anne Kihagi and Christina Mwangi, the latter the owner of a 27% interest, according to court documents.
Over the next 14 months the new landlords systematically made life miserable for the tenants — taking away recycling bins, refusing to fix a leaking water heater, blocking access to a laundry room and allowing power to be shut off due to unpaid bills, according to the court decision.
The landlords “ignored or delayed responding to maintenance and upkeep issues, were uncommunicative and uncooperative, and became increasingly hostile,” the court said in a 3-0 ruling.
In April 2015, the landlord filed an “owner move-in” eviction, claiming that Mwangi, who already had a nearby rental unit and owned a home, would be moving into the apartment. Duncan and Mendoza were forced to move out, renting a unit that cost three times the amount of the apartment they were evicted from. Duncan and Mendoza sued in May of that year.
The jury found the landlord had harassed tenants and had violated the state’s owner move-in law, which allows a property owner to evict rent-controlled tenants from a unit so long as the landlord uses or occupies the unit “as his or her principal residence for a period of at least 36 continuous months.”
Damages were tripled under the rent law to $3.528 million, but Superior Court Judge Andrew Cheng found the damages excessive and reduced them to $2.7 million, the amount upheld by the appeals court.
City Attorney spokesman John Coté praised the court of appeal’s ruling.
“The jury in this case came to the same conclusion that the judge did in our case: that Ms. Kihagi and her accomplices unlawfully harassed and evicted tenants. We’re pleased that the Court of Appeal has now affirmed both of these cases. The people of San Francisco have had enough of Ms. Kihagi’s lies, predatory practices, and legal trickery.”
旧金山夫妇遭房东骚扰逼迁 获赔270万
9/04/2021
三藩市一對租住單位逾廿年的夫婦，遭房東多番恐嚇以圖提高租金。租客夫婦早前提訴獲判賠償270萬元，房東不服上訴，上訴庭三名法官判上訴無效，維持原判。
《三藩市紀事報》報道，鄧肯(Dale Duncan)和妻子門多薩(Marta Munoz Mendoza)數年前被迫遷離居住逾廿年的三藩市一間公寓後入稟法院，提告前房東、一間由女子基哈吉(Anne Kihagi)控制的有限責任公司非法逼遷和騷擾。
原訴法官判鄧肯夫婦勝訴，可獲被告賠償逾352萬元，後來法院調低賠償金額至270萬元。房東不服上訴，鄧肯夫婦也反上訴挑戰經修改和賠償減少的裁決。
這是於三藩市一度持有11間公寓的基哈吉面對的訴訟戰最新發展。市府律師赫雷拉(Dennis Herrera) 2017年提告基哈吉，一名州法官最後判基哈吉敗訴，需罰款550萬元。
當時女法官布拉德斯特里特(Angela Bradstreet)批評基哈吉和同案被告持續對租客作出惡意騷擾、報復和欺詐，又提到兩名被告「完全缺乏理解他們行為的不合法性」。
案情指，鄧肯1994年初租住三藩市Hill街一座五單位物業其中的兩房單位。根據租約，鄧肯負責天然氣和電費，房東負責水費和垃圾費。鄧肯妻子門多薩2010年遷入，後來與女兒同住，從未逾期交租或欠租。
物業2014年5月賣予基哈吉和姆旺吉(Christina Mwangi)等人持有的Zoriall LLC後出現變化。法庭文件顯示，姆旺吉持有該公司27%股份。
裁決指，新房東隨後14個月有系統破壞租客生活，包括拿走回收箱、拒修漏水熱水爐、阻止使用洗衣房和不付電費導致停電。
法院指，房東「無視或拖延維修保養，又不肯溝通和不合作，越來越敵視他人」。鄧肯夫婦只好搬離原單位，以原單位租金的三倍價錢租住另一單位。房東2015年4月提出「業主自住」驅逐通知，稱當時已租住附近單位和有屋的姆旺吉將搬入公寓。鄧肯夫婦同年5月入稟。
陪審團認為房東一直騷擾租客，又違反加州業主自住的法規。
賠償金額起初依租務法例增加兩倍至352萬8000元，但高院法官鄭元松(Andrew Cheng)認為金額過高，將金額調低至270萬元，並獲上訴庭判維持賠償額。
