Duvall Highlands, L.L.C. v. Elwell
Duvall Highlands, L.L.C. v. Elwell
Opinion of the Court
—After mobile home tenant Jan Elwell refused to pay the rent and other charges due in June 1999, her landlord, Anna Hwang, issued a five-day notice to pay or vacate. When Elwell failed to pay anything before the notice deadline, Hwang commenced an unlawful detainer action and served Elwell with a summons and complaint. The summons instructed Elwell to pay the rent due into the court registry as directed by RCW 59.18.375 in order to avoid immediate issuance of a writ of restitution to Hwang, but Elwell did not deposit any funds into the court registry. After a show cause hearing, the commissioner referred the case to trial, where Elwell ultimately prevailed. But because Elwell failed to pay even the undisputed portion of the rent and charges, the commissioner should have issued a writ of restitution and entered a final judgment in Hwang’s favor at the show cause hearing. We therefore reverse.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In June 1995, Elwell signed a lot lease for $325 a month and moved with her son and daughter into the Duvall Highlands Mobile Home Park (the Park), which Hwang
Although Elwell never formally confronted Hwang about her objections after the December 1998 notice, she failed to pay anything when the June 1999 rent became due. Accordingly, on June 4, 1999, Hwang served Elwell with a statutory five-day notice to pay rent or vacate.
At the June 21 show cause hearing,
On appeal, Hwang contends the trial court erred in failing to issue a writ of restitution and enter a final judgment in her favor on the issue of possession at the show cause hearing. She argues Elwell forfeited her right to possession by the time of the show cause hearing because she failed to pay any June 1999 rent or charges, even the undisputed amount, to Hwang before the notice deadline or into the court registry, as required by the summons. We agree.
Unlawful detainer actions instituted by a mobile home landlord are governed by the general unlawful detainer statute, chapter 59.12 RCW, as modified by the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 1973, chapter 59.18 RCW.
Because Elwell failed to comply with RCW 59.18.375’s requirements and refused to pay even the
We note that if Elwell had tendered the undisputed amount to Hwang within the five-day notice period and Hwang had accepted it, Hwang would have waived the right to proceed with the unlawful detainer action at that point.
We next address Elwell’s obligations for rent and fees as of June 1, 1999, to assist the trial court in calculating damages. The trial court essentially determined that Elwell owed the $75 fee Hwang charged her for utilities but not the $75 in extra vehicle fees. We agree with those decisions.
A federal consent order was entered in 1998 that required Hwang to charge all Park units a base rent of $450 or $375 plus “water, sewer and garbage utilities and other applicable municipal utility services actually used by that unit.” The trial court ruled in limine that, as a matter of law, the consent order applies to Elwell, and Hwang therefore properly applied the consent order’s rent structure to her. But the consent order specified that its terms were “[s]ubject to the requirements and restrictions found in the [Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act (MHLTA),]” and Elwell argues on appeal that the MHLTA prevents Hwang from requiring her to pay utilities because her original lease agreement stated that Hwang would provide garbage, water, and sewer. We disagree for the reasons explained in McGahuey v. Hwang,
As for the vehicle fees, at trial Elwell defended her failure
“There is a maximum of two vehicles per space, twenty-five dollars ($25) per month for each additional vehicle.”
The trial court considered the proper interpretation of Rule 4.1 when Elwell made a CR 50 motion for judgment as a matter of law after Hwang rested her case. Elwell claimed there was insufficient evidence for the jury to find she had violated the rule. The jury was dismissed, and a lengthy discussion ensued.
Elwell advocated interpreting the rule to require that a tenant pay the $25 fee whenever any car beyond two is in the tenant’s space for a “substantial portion of the month.” Accordingly, Elwell argued, she was entitled to judgment as a matter of law because Hwang “simply [hasn’t] proved that those vehicles were there for any substantial portion of the month—for June and July.”
“[T]here is a failure of plaintiff’s proof. There is no testimony as to the number of vehicles that were registered. There is also no testimony that I heard which establishes that each day of the month there was an additional vehicle, and the Article 4, paragraph 4.1 says, There is a maximum of two vehicles per space, $25 per month for each additional vehicle. It seems to be a confusing situation where there is a revolving number of*771 vehicles on site, but it would seem to me that when you read the rental articles, reasonably, there is a way of establishing a base number, and that’s by registration, and in this case there was no registration. And furthermore, I don’t believe that even construing the evidence against the tenant in this case, there is a basis for the Court to conclude that there was a vehicle—a particular number of registered vehicles in every space or in the spaces every day and I think it’s the plaintiff who has failed to establish the prima facia [sic] case, not the defendant.”
The court’s comments are confusing because interpreting the rule to require a registration procedure to establish a base number does not necessarily mean that a jury would also have to find that any alleged extra vehicles were present every day.
We take a different approach, and hold that Rule 4.1 is inapplicable to, and therefore unenforceable in, the situation involved here.
RCW 59.20.110 provides for attorney fees for the prevail
Reversed and remanded for calculation of damages and attorney fees.
Baker and Becker, JJ., concur.
Although the Park as an entity is technically the appellant here, we refer to Hwang as the appellant for ease of reference.
Park Rule 4.1 reads: “There is a maximum of two vehicles per space, twenty-five dollars ($25) per month for each additional vehicle.”
Testimony and photographs in the record indicate that Elwell’s son earns money by repairing cars and that numerous vehicles, including disabled cars on jacks, were parked at Elwell’s space off and on in late 1998 and through July of 1999.
The parties are well aware of the complicated factual history that gives rise to Elwell’s protests.
The five-day notice in cases of nonpayment of rent is required by RCW 59.20.080(l)(b).
See RCW 59.18.370.
See RCW 59.20.040; see also 17 William B. Stoebuck, Washington Practice: Real Estate: Property Law § 6.81 (1995).
RCW 59.18.375(2). This payment is not required if the tenant submits to the court a signed statement “denying that the rent alleged due in the complaint is owing based upon a legal or equitable defense or set-off arising out of the tenancy [.]” Id. Elwell never submitted such a statement.
RCW 59.18.375(3).
The undisputed amount was at least $375. On February 24, 1998, Hwang notified Elwell that as of June 1, 1998, she would owe a base rent of $375 plus a $10 pet fee. The record indicates that Elwell no longer owns a pet.
See Hwang v. McMahill, 103 Wn. App. 945, 954, 15 P.3d 172 (2000) (landlord was entitled to possession under RCW 59.20.080(l)(b) where tenant failed to pay rent and other charges before five-day notice deadline).
Although show cause hearings are generally summary proceedings to determine the issue of possession pendente lite, Carlstrom v. Hanline, 98 Wn. App. 780, 788, 990 P.2d 986 (2000), there was no basis on which to proceed to trial on possession in this case.
17 William B. Stoebuck, Washington Practice: Real Estate: Property Law § 6.79 at 416 (1995).
See McMahill, 103 Wn. App. at 954 (fact that tenant is in unlawful detainer for nonpayment of rent renders moot the defense that some of the charges are not actually owed).
The well established rule in Washington is that if a landlord accepts rent with knowledge of a prior breach of a lease covenant, the landlord waives the right to
104 Wn. App. 176, 181-84, 15 P.3d 672 (2001), filed simultaneously with this opinion.
The number of vehicles in July was relevant because Hwang requested any rent or other charges owing after June 1, 1999, in her complaint.
The interpretation of a lease is a question of law reviewed de novo. Carlstrom, 98 Wn. App. at 784. Ambiguities in a lease agreement must be construed against the one who prepares the lease agreement, and the court will adopt the interpretation that is most favorable to the lessee. Id. at 785.
We also note that Rule 4.1 is unclear in other circumstances because it does not indicate how the existence of an “additional vehicle” will be determined. For example, must a tenant pay the $25 fee if she parks a third vehicle in her space for one week each month, half the month, or “most” of the month? It also does not specify whether the tenant or the landlord is responsible for enforcing the rule. Is the tenant expected to inform the landlord of additional cars, or is it the landlord’s duty to inspect for extra cars? When should this determination take place? In the
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Duvall Highlands, L.L.C. v. Jan Lynn Sellers Elwell
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published