Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Consent
SUBJECT:
Title
REPORT ON CITY'S VICTORY IN THE NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS IN THE COLONY COVE PROPERTIES, LLC V. CITY OF CARSON MATTER, ESTABLISHING STATEWIDE IMPORTANT LEGAL PRECEDENT AND SAVING THE CARSON NEARLY $8 MILLION (CITY COUNCIL)
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I. SUMMARY
On April 23, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the nearly $8 million judgment that James Goldstein, the owner of Colony Cove Mobile Estates, obtained against the City of Carson in 2016. The Ninth Circuit entirely dismissed Mr. Goldstein's lawsuit and ordered the trial court to enter judgment in favor of Carson.
This landmark court decision all but ends more than a decade of litigation over Mr. Goldstein's 2007 attempt to charge Colony Cove's senior citizen residents nearly $800,000 per year (in the form of over $600 per month additional rents to the residents) to cover the mortgage interest payments from his 2006 purchase of the park. Mr. Goldstein essentially argued he must be guaranteed a profit by law. The Ninth Circuit rejected that argument and held the City's Mobilehome Park Rental Review Board acted lawfully in refusing to pass through the mortgage interest expenses to the residents.
This court victory represents yet another in a long line of courageous and successful stands taken by the Carson City Council to protect the City's fixed-income, senior citizen mobilehome park residents from relentless legal attacks on the City's rent control ordinance. The end result is complete vindication and renewed, strong legal precedent to protect rent control not only in Carson, but throughout the state of California and the rest of the Ninth Circuit.
The decision has further state wide implications because it confirms that public agencies have broad leeway to implement rent control and other regulatory programs adopted in the public interest. it confirms that only the most extreme-and therefore unusual-regulation ca...
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