Apartment Tenants Win $500,000 : Landlord Agrees to Pay 15 Latino Families After Long Suit

By DOROTHY TOWNSEND

May 3, 1985 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

Four years after they went to court to get their landlord to rid their tenement quarters in Central Los Angeles of rats, spiders and filth, 15 Latino families will share in a $500,000 out-of-court settlement of the case.

“I am very excited, happy and proud,” Noemi Hernandez, the lead plaintiff in the class action, told The Times through an interpreter Thursday. “It was a very hard struggle, but we wanted to show that through fighting together, in union, something can be done.”

Hernandez, a Salvadoran immigrant, led the tenant fight that resulted in a class-action suit against landlord Rudolph Stabach in April, 1981. The case was in its fourth month of trial when lawyers told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bonnie Lee Martin on April 18 that a settlement had been reached. The settlement was deemed confidential and Martin barred attorneys from disclosing the terms, but not the plaintiffs.

Attorneys Barbara Blanco of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and Barbara Hadsell, one of the private lawyers representing the tenants, would say only that it was “a very satisfactory settlement.”

The Times was unable to reach Russell Westfall, Stabach’s attorney, on Thursday.

Only four of the 15 plaintiff families still reside in the apartment complex at 1953 and 1959 Estrella Ave. near the junction of the Santa Monica and Harbor freeways. The 77 units are occupied predominantly by Latinos.

“We are still here,” Hernandez said Thursday afternoon at the apartment she shares with her husband and two young children, “because I know my work will not be done until I see the repairs are made.”

She said workmen had been there making repairs during the day.

Since initiation of the case, conditions “have changed a lot already” in terms of upkeep, she said.

During the trial, Westfall contended that his client tried to better the living conditions, but that destructive tenants and the proliferation of rats interfered.

Tenant witnesses gave lengthy testimony about substandard living conditions, ranging from infestation to plugged and leaking plumbing.

Jurors agreed last month when they brought in special findings for two of the 15 plaintiff families. They found Stabach negligent and guilty of maintaining a public nuisance which was injurious to the plaintiffs.

At that time, the jurors recommended an award of about $92,000 for the first two families, an amount negated by the subsequent settlement agreement.

‘This Is Incredible’

After moving into the complex in 1980, Hernandez recalled, “I said this is incredible! It was too much--dirty, rats, no hot water at times, hallways dark without lights.”

She said she told Stabach that she would withhold her rent until he made repairs and that he tried to evict her, but failed. Then she decided to organize other tenants and went to the Legal Aid Foundation for assistance.

Hernandez said it is her understanding that a decision will be made in 60 to 90 days as to how the money will be divided.

Staff writer Marita Hernandez contributed to this article