Judge Rules Against Landlord in “Consumer Protection” Case

By Lookout Staff

March 10 – In a first of its kind case, a Santa Monica Superior Court judge this week ordered a local landlord to pay $47,500 in fines and barred him from having direct contact with seven of his tenants.

The judge ruled Tuesday that Isaac Gabriel -- who was sued by the City last June under a State consumer protection statute -- committed a total of 17 illegal acts against tenants at his two Santa Monica rent-controlled apartment buildings.

These acts included:

• Stealing a TV satellite dish from the roof of a senior citizen tenant's apartment,
• Assaulting a tenant in his kitchen and robbing the tenant of his camera,
• Invading the privacy of a tenant by vandalizing her property while she was away,
• Illegally taking away laundry and cable TV services from tenants,
• Repeatedly serving tenants with fraudulent notices and
• Illegally entering tenants' apartments.

The ruling capped a three-day trial held before Judge Patricia Collins earlier this year that saw the City use the California Unfair Competition Law -- which prohibits illegal, unfair and fraudulent business practices -- in an effort to stop what it alleges is a pattern of “illegal behavior against tenants” by Gabriel.

"Building owners need to know that repeated harassment of their tenants will not be tolerated in Santa Monica," said Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky.

The court imposed the maximum fines allowed by law due, in part, to the chronic and serious nature of the violations and the long period of time over which they occurred, Radinsky said.

In addition to paying $47,500 in fines and penalties -- half of which goes to Santa Monica's Consumer Protection fund, half to L.A. County -- Gabriel must pay the City's attorneys' fees and court costs.

He is also permanently prohibited from coming within 30 feet of the seven tenants who testified at the trial and entering any of those tenants' apartments.

Gabriel is also prohibited from preventing those tenants from having laundry or cable TV services and evicting a tenant who "repairs and deducts" if Gabriel ignores the tenant's repair request.

Gabriel (who is not related to civic leaders Bob and Louise Gabriel), has a history of legal problems with the City dating back to 1999, Radinsky said.

In 1998, Gabriel -- who owns apartment buildings at 1007 16th Street (four units) and 1035 Fifth Street (ten units) -- was convicted of illegally locking out a tenant and taking the tenant's personal property, both misdemeanors, Radinsky said.

He was sentenced to 30 days' house arrest and ordered to perform 480 hours community service.

The following year, the City Attorney's Office filed new charges against Gabriel for battery and harassment of a female tenant, Radinsky said. The case was settled after a judge ordered Gabriel to perform repairs in the woman's apartment, forbade him from having further contact with her and added one year to his probation.

Similar complaints were formally filed with the City Attorneys office by half a dozen tenants over the past four years.

While most cases filed by the City against landlords involve tenants allegedly harassed in an effort to force them out of their units in order to jack up low rents, Gabriel seemed to be indiscriminate, Radinsky said.