Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Judgement

In May 2002 we entered into a Stipulation for Judgement with our former Landlords (retalitory eviction, habitability issues, constructive eviction, etc.)Basically, we agreed to pay them 1,075.00 in payments of 150.00 per month and we agreed to move. They agreed to pay our security deposit(1075.00) in accord. with cc sec 1950.4. and to forfeit rent and attorney fees from 1/02 to 6/02 and we would all go on with our lives- action being dismissed upon our compliance etc. etc. First payment was made on time (cert mail rr) Landlord refused to pick up Cert mail in timely manner and in the meantime filed a ''Execution of Judgement''. They also never complied with payment of security deposit or notified us of any problems in that regard.(found out by accident in Sept 02) House was left in ''superior'' condition-(witnesses and pictures) We now have a judgement on our credit report and we were refused housing due to this ''eviction'' Is this a case for ''malicious prosecution'' and how do we proceed? Thank You


Asked on 4/21/03, 12:29 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
H.M. Torrey The Law Offices of H.M. Torrey

Re: Judgement

malicious prosecution would require a showing that your former landlord initiated criminal and/or civil action (wrongful instigation of civil proceedings) against you which lacked probable cause and the proceeding turned out in your favor. abuse of process does not have the same probable cause criteria, but only requires a showing that the court process was wrongfully used for ulterior motives by your landlord. if you can email my law firm today and let us know how your landlord's conduct might fall into any of the aforementioned definitions, i.e. malicious prosecution, wrongful instigation of civil proceedings, and/or abuse of process, we may be able to further advise you of your rights here. further, if your landlord's conduct does not necessarily meet the aforementioned criteria, you may still have a cause of action for breach of contract. just let us know if this agreement was in writing between you and your landlord, and we may be able to further assist and/or represent you legally in this matter.

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Answered on 4/21/03, 1:13 pm


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