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Nuyen v. Luna10/13/2005
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A plaintiff may maintain a claim based on the same cause of action if "the parties have agreed in terms or effect that the plaintiff may split claim, or the defendant has acquiesced therein." RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF JUDGMENTS § 26 (1)(a). By agreeing that Luna could pursue her landlord-tenant claim, Nuyen waived any res judicata defense. Giles v. Ware, 615 A.2d 533, 535, 545, 549-50 (D.C. 1992) (per curiam) (adopting RESTATEMENT (SECOND) JUDGMENTS § 26 (l)(a)). See also Ifill v. District of Columbia, 665 A.2d 185, 193 (D.C. 1995), cert. denied, 517 U.S. 1169 (1996).
Although the trial court could not have found that Nuyen's supplemental motion, filed by his attorney, raised a meritorious defense, it could have determined that Nuyen's pro se motion did. To explain this conclusion, we briefly review the record before the trial court.
Luna's counterclaim alleged that she and her two children inhabited a one-bedroom condominium under a lease beginning October 2000. She alleged several violations of the District of Columbia Housing Code Regulations existing from the inception of her tenancy, including the absence of heat, problems with plumbing, broken windows, rodent infestation, and the absence of a fire alarm. One of the most serious of the alleged violations consisted of an allegation that a ceiling had fallen on one of her children. In the motion for default judgment she stated, in support of her position that the court should award punitive damages:
hortly after moving to the property, [Luna] began to notice that the ceiling was in a state of near collapse. When she notified [Nuyen] of the dangerous state of the ceiling, [Nuyen] refused to effect repairs to the premises, despite actual and constructive notice of the danger and threat the condition posed to the health, safety and welfare of the Defendant, her minor children, and her invitees. Ultimately, the ceiling collapsed upon the Defendant's minor child causing her injuries.
Luna's motion for default judgment reiterated her prayer for compensatory monetary relief, requesting an abatement of rent from the inception of the tenancy, calculated at $4,000. Luna's request for punitive damages was based on the housing code violations as well as on an allegation that Nuyen was an "archetyp . . . 'slumlord.'" Her allegation was supported by newspaper articles and other documents, attached to the motion, reporting Nuyen's ownership of several apartments with low-income tenants, his citation for thousands of housing code violations, and his indictment in connection with the Justice Department's investigation into lead paint violations in several of his apartments.
The default judgment granted the rent abatement in the amount of $4,000 for the entire period of the tenancy, and punitive damages in the amount of $50,000. The court also granted the injunctive relief requested. The rent abatement, if entered after a trial, would necessarily be predicated on proof that there were housing code violations from the inception of the tenancy that rendered the apartment unsafe and unsanitary, about which Nuyen knew or should have known, or on proof that such violations arose after the tenancy began, were not caused by Luna's intentional acts or negligence, and were not corrected within a reasonable time. See 14 DCMR §§ 302.1 and 302.2 (2004). The punitive damages judgment, if entered after a trial, would necessarily have been grounded on a finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that Nuyen's conduct in permitting or not correcting the housing code violations was "malicious, wanton, reckless, or in willful disregard of [Luna's] rights." Jonathan Woodner Co. v. Breeden, 665 A.2d 929, 938 (D.C. 1995), ce
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