Elmassian v. Flores
California Superior Court, Appellate Division
69 Cal. App. 5th Supp. 1 (2021)
- Written by Jamie Milne, JD
Facts
Noemi Flores (defendant) was a tenant in an apartment complex managed by Nora Elmassian (plaintiff). Flores and her partner frequently argued, resulting in the partner’s arrest and a restraining order prohibiting him from coming near Flores. Another man then started coming to Flores’s apartment without her permission and causing trouble. He was violent toward her and broke down her door. Flores reported the incidents to the police. Elmassian terminated Flores’s tenancy, alleging nuisance, and filed an unlawful detainer action to remove Flores from the apartment. Flores denied the nuisance allegations and asserted various defenses. One of the defenses was that the tenancy’s termination was improper because it was based on acts that constituted domestic violence against Flores. At trial, Elmassian’s evidence of nuisance was based on both domestic-violence acts and non-domestic-violence acts. However, the court granted a directed verdict regarding Flores’s domestic-violence defense, concluding that the defense was inapplicable. The jury then held that Flores had committed a nuisance on the property, prompting a judgment in Elmassian’s favor. The jury did not specify which evidence of nuisance it relied upon. Flores appealed, contesting the trial judge’s directed verdict on the domestic-violence defense.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Ricciardulli, J.)
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