The following is a press release from the City of Santa Monica.
In a housing discrimination case brought by the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office that involved a family member with disabilities, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Sepe-Wiesenfeld has signed a stipulated judgment and injunctions against the two Defendant-landlords, Brida LLC and its managing agent Kathy Golshani. The injunction protects future tenants with disabilities from discrimination and harassment.
In City v. Brida LLC et al, Case No. SC125490, the City alleged that the Defendants refused to provide reasonable accommodations to a family that included a daughter with disabilities. The allegations included refusals to provide accommodations related to parking and medical equipment followed by alleged harassment in the form of blocking parked cars and improper entries into the subject unit.
Over the course of the litigation, the court granted the City’s requests for seven different injunctions, the last of which prohibited the landlord from managing the subject unit and coming within 50 feet of the apartment building. Soon after City obtained that injunction, the Defendants’ insurance company paid the family one million dollars in the family’s related discrimination case against Defendants. When the family alleged that Defendants’ harassment continued, Defendants also personally paid a second settlement to the family. The family was represented by
John Taylor and Natalie Weatherford of Taylor & Ring, LLP.
Under the terms of the stipulated judgment, the Defendants must do all of the following:
- 1) Obey the City’s Tenant Harassment Ordinance and Anti-Housing Discrimination Ordinance.
- 2) Adopt a written, City-approved policy for handling requests by tenants with disabilities for reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications.
- 3) Attend a fair housing training every year for the next five years.
- 4) Pay $45,000 to the City.
The family has moved out on their own terms, and the previous injunctions have been dissolved.
“The City has passed some of the strongest tenant protection laws in the State,” said City Attorney Doug Sloan. “Our cases like this one show that the City takes the next step and actually enforces these laws to protect the community from discrimination and harassment, whether it is for one family or many.”
