Residents get win in trailer park lawsuit: Complaints included 'raw sewage' discharges and lack of fresh water

Jun. 16—Residents of the Country Air Mobile Home Park in Dobbins recently won an up-hill legal battle against the park's management regarding eight points of litigation including alleged negligence to the property and causing distress to tenants.

After moving to the park with his wife in 2015, Jeffrey Warrens, a spokesperson for the lawsuit, had hopes of spending the rest of his life in their remodeled trailer. However, several maintenance issues and alleged hostility from the park's management would prevent this.

According to Warrens, when Robert Glander of South Carolina stepped into his role as property manager, he fired all maintenance workers for the park while failing to upkeep crucial maintenance areas, severely impacting the quality of life for residents.

The park's management and management problems reportedly included repeatedly spilled or discharged raw sewage onto the common areas, roads in severe disrepair, street and outdoor lighting which was either lacking or inadequate for considerable lengths of time, abandoned and dilapidated trailers left on the property, inadequate electrical service, electrical pedestals and power supply lines to individual mobile homes, exposed electrical wiring, inadequate fresh water supply and a regular use of profanity or threats of violence when dealing with park residents.

"The Park's failure to properly supervise and manage its employees has needlessly endangered the safety of the public and residents. Management regularly refuses to respond to complaints made by residents. Management comes onto resident's spaces without advance notice and selectively enforces Park rules or does not enforce them at all. Repairs, when attempted, are done poorly or incorrectly," Warrens said in a statement.

Prior to litigation, Warrens made several complaints to the California Department of Housing and Community Development regarding Glander's handling of the property. On Dec. 8, 2017, a notice to suspend was delivered to Glander, stating that if he did not correct several maintenance issues within 30 days, the permit to operate Country Air Mobile Home Park would be suspended.

"They put an intent to suspend up; they posted it. Three months later, (Glander) still hadn't fixed what that intent to suspend was for, so they came and suspended the permit to operate at 5 o'clock in the evening, and at 8 o'clock in the morning it was lifted. Not no work was done [sic]," Warrens said.

After enduring these reported conditions for nearly four years, Warrens and 14 other trailer park residents sued Glander and the park owners for property negligence, breach of implied warranty of habitability, negligent maintenance and emotional distress. According to Warrens, attempts to confront Glander about the state of the trailer park were met with verbal hostility.

"We had a river of sewer running in our backyard for about seven months," Warrens told the Appeal. "(Glander) would chase the single women out there, yelling at them, screaming at them when they came into the park. He called my wife a trailer park b****. He was just unreasonable."

Glander served as property manager, but neither the plaintiffs nor the Appeal were able to confirm the true owners of Country Air Mobile Home Park. Instead, the lawsuit names the Joyce Marie Pet Advocacy Trust and Earl Lawrence of Citi Trustee Services as other defendants in the case.

According to a declaration from Lawrence in support of a motion to quash, Citi Services holds legal title as trustee for real property owners and provides mail service. Citi Services resigned as the trustee of the Joyce Marie Pet Advocacy Trust on Nov. 12, 2018. Because litigation was filed on Dec. 27, 2018, Lawrence asserted that Citi Services is not involved in this property or any issue in this litigation.

However, a trial notice from May this year still listed Lawrence as a defendant in the case.

Contacting the exact parties involved with the trailer park proved to be a significant challenge for Warrens, the other residents and the attorney representing them, Lyle Havens.

"It took Mr. Havens two years to get everybody served because there were no addresses and no way to get addresses," Warrens said. "The only address we ever got for (Glander) was the P.O. box for the park."

Over the course of the lawsuit, several residents of Country Air Mobile Home Park were met with eviction attempts from Glander, which were later thrown out, Warrens said. The residents, including Warrens and his wife, eventually left the park voluntarily due to the stress of their living conditions.

"We had to; Our doctor told us for our health because I was starting to get anxiety," Warrens said.

After three court dates, Havens confirmed that Lawrence and Glander were willing to settle the case at $25,000. As of June 5, Warrens confirmed that the settlement was paid and will be split between all 15 plaintiffs.

Prior to paying the settlement, Glander told the Appeal that he "categorically (denies) all the charges" and declined further comment.

"They've all got this judgment on the record which is what we wanted so they couldn't do this again," Warrens said. "We succeeded in what we wanted to do. Whether we get a dime or not is not the big thing. It's just nice to know that we did get the judgment."