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Nuyen v. Luna10/13/2005
rt. denied, 519 U.S. 1148 (1997).
Nuyen's answer to Luna's complaint in the civil action, in which she alleged personal injuries arising from the collapsed ceiling, asserted that he and his managers have never been informed of any problems of the ceiling. Plaintiff has been a tenant only recently and the unit was in good condition at the time the Plaintiff moved in. Any complaints about the condition of the unit have been fixed properly.
In his pro se motion to vacate, Nuyen asserted that " here are no housing code violations in the defendant' premises as claimed by defendant and as known to plaintiff." He stated that plaintiff moved with her children into an efficiency apartment, and was told that she could not live there with children. "Out of compassion," according to Nuyen, he allowed her to live there while she waited for a one-bedroom apartment. When that became available, she refused to move. " o avoid headache," he "renovated her apartment to almost new."
In response to the allegations in support of the punitive damages award, Nuyen stated that the lead-paint criminal case "had nothing to do with housing code violations." He further stated:
In the District of Columbia, especially for apartment buildings with low income tenants, it is a common practice that when tenants are behind in rents, they tend to make things up and call housing inspectors for housing code violations. Housing inspectors would come and write up the violations. Landlords then usually have thirty days to correct the violations. Once the violations are corrected, landlords have to call the inspectors to re-inspect the units and clear the violations. However, it is a common practice that the inspectors would not come back in response to landlords' requests. They would come back only if tenants call them again for still pending violations. The high profile case against the plaintiff has been the product of a campaign from the HUD to promote awareness in the real estate industry nationwide regarding the lead-based paint disclosure requirements. It had nothing to do with this case.
Nuyen's answer to the complaint, together with his motion, provided the trial court with sufficient factual assertions to permit it to conclude that he presented an adequate defense to a claim of rent abatement for the entire period of the tenancy. Although Nuyen did not, in his response, address each alleged housing code violation, he asserted that there were no violations "as claimed by" Luna, and that he had renovated the apartment "to almost new." He further asserted that tenants generally "tend to make things up and call housing inspectors for housing code violations." A fair inference from this pro se response is that Nuyen took the position that each of Luna's claims was false. Nuyen's answer to Luna's complaint in the civil action asserted that Luna's unit was in good condition when she moved in, and Nuyen specifically denied being informed of any problems with the ceiling, thus denying a central predicate for the rent abatement and punitive damages. Further, his allegations that he had acted out of compassion toward Luna, had fixed her apartment to "almost new," and had never been informed of the problem with the ceiling, together with his assertion that his conviction in connection with the lead paint investigation was irrelevant to the assessment of punitive damages, were sufficient to permit the trial court to conclude that Nuyen had a defense to the complaint for punitive damages. Beyond this, of course, we do not express any opinion on the merits of Nuyen's proffered defenses.
III. Conclusion
We cannot hold as a matter of law that Nuyen's motion failed to meet any
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