Los Angeles landlords seeking damages over unpaid rents during the pandemic have been shut down at the nation’s highest court.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a property rights claim from Los Angeles landlords seeking $20 million from tenants who didn’t pay their rent while Covid eviction bans were in place, The Los Angeles Times reported. With two conservative justices in dissent, the court said without comment that it would not hear an appeal from the coalition of 13 apartment owners who said they represent “over 4,800 units” in “luxury apartment communities” that are home to “predominantly high-income tenants.”
The plaintiffs argued that their constitutional rights were violated as the city’s strict eviction moratorium, which lasted from March 2020 to January 2023, was responsible for taking their private property for public use. They cited the Fifth Amendment clause saying “private property [shall not] be taken for public use without just compensation,” which they believe the city did with its eviction moratorium.
The case, GHP Management Corporation v. City of Los Angeles, kicked off in 2021 and took nearly four years to reach Washington, D.C.
“The city pressed private property into public service, foisting the cost of its coronavirus response onto housing providers.” the plaintiffs said in the case, according to the Times. “By August 2021, when [they] sued the City seeking just compensation for that physical taking, back rents owed by their unremovable tenants had ballooned to over $20 million.”
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the landlords’ suit in a 3-0 decision, citing decades of precedent that allowed regulation of property.
Of the nine Supreme Court justices, only Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch voted to hear the GHP Management case.
“I would grant review of the question whether a policy barring landlords from evicting tenants for the nonpayment of rent [equates to] a physical taking under the Taking Clause,” Thomas said. “This case meets all of our usual criteria… The Court nevertheless denies certiorari, leaving in place confusion on a significant issue, and leaving petitioners without a chance to obtain the relief to which they are likely entitled.”
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