Rutan & Tucker Partner Doug Dennington has led a team including Jayson Parsons and Erik Leggio to protect the rights of landlords impacted by various COVID-related eviction moratoria that were initially imposed as short-term, emergency measures, but that have been repeatedly renewed or extended in certain jurisdictions.
In January of this year, the County of Los Angeles renewed its eviction moratorium which, at the time, had been temporarily preempted by the State moratorium on residential evictions. The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles and the Apartment Owners Association of California retained Doug to file a lawsuit in Federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, on the grounds that the eviction ban (and in particular provisions that allowed tenants to “self-certify” a COVID-related hardship) violated landlords’ constitutional right to procedural due process, as well as that the entire moratorium was void for vagueness. On October 19, 2022, Judge Pregerson issued an order granting the preliminary injunction and enjoining the eviction ban on the grounds that it is void for vagueness. Congrats to Doug and team!
