SF judge says building manager who stole rent should pay tenants up to $110,000 each
http://missionlocal.org/2015/09/sf-judge-says-building-manager-who-stole-the-rent-should-pay-tenants-up-to-110000-each/
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard B. Ulmer Jr. issued a tentative ruling Friday in a case brought by nine tenants against their master tenant, writing, that it was “not hyperbolic” to call the building German Maldonado ran at 3150-3154 26th Street “a death trap.”
“This court trial told a tawdry tale from the seamy side of San Francisco’s hyper-inflated housing market,” the judge wrote in the tentative ruling, which may be challenged in an upcoming hearing and will not be finalized until October. The ruling awards each of the nine tenants in three units varying amounts between $67,000 and $110,000 in damages....
Maldonado was found liable for fraud, neglecting the building, profiteering, causing emotional distress, and causing the tenants to lose work income.
The tenants told the court Maldonado collected rent from them and lied about passing it onto the landlord, Thomas Aquilina. Tenants lived as many as four people to a room, amidst broken smoke detectors, leaky pipes, burnt-out or exposed electrical outlets, and infestations of mice, bedbugs and roaches. The rear bedrooms in the building were also individually rented and therefore locked doors blocked access to the fire escapes.