Clark, et al. v. Leisure Woods Estates, Inc. (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-019-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-366 Appeals Court DOUG CLARK & others[1] vs. LEISURE WOODS ESTATES, INC. No. 15-P-366. Franklin. November 13, 2015. – February 23, 2016. Present: Milkey, Carhart, & Massing, JJ. Damages, Breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment, Breach of implied warranty of habitability, Consumer protection case. Landlord and Tenant, Quiet enjoyment, Habitability, Consumer protection, Multiple damages, Snow and ice. Consumer Protection Act, Damages, Landlord and tenant. Manufactured Housing Community. Snow and Ice. Practice, Criminal, Witness. Civil action commenced in the Western Division of the Housing Court Department on November 2, 2009. The case was heard by Robert G. Fields, J. Timothy N. Schofield for the defendant. Jan Stiefel for the plaintiffs. MASSING, J. This appeal involves a series of landlord-tenant disputes in the manufactured housing context. The plaintiffs, residents of Leisure Woods Estates (Leisure Woods), a manufactured housing community in Orange, filed a complaint alleging that the defendant, Leisure Woods Estates, Inc., which owns, operates, and maintains Leisure Woods, failed to properly maintain and repair the common spaces, roads, and home sites. After a jury-waived trial, a judge of the Housing Court entered judgment in favor of plaintiffs representing seven households,[2] finding a breach of the implied warranty of habitability with respect to the condition of the roads, interference with the plaintiffs’ quiet enjoyment of the common walking trails, and separate and distinct breaches of the covenant of quiet enjoyment with respect to the conditions of the seven individual home sites. The judge awarded injunctive relief and monetary damages for the violations, including two separate awards of three months’ rent to each household under G. L. c. 186, § 14 (§ 14), for the breaches of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, and a twenty percent rent abatement, trebled under G. L. c. 93A (c. 93A) and the Attorney General’s regulations promulgated thereunder, for the breach of the warranty of habitability. The judge awarded each household $ 13,010.40 (a total of $ 91,072.80), plus attorney’s fees and costs. On appeal, the defendant argues that the judge erred in awarding multiple triple rent damage awards under § 14 for separate breaches of the covenant of quiet enjoyment, in applying the warranty of habitability to potholes and accumulations of ice and snow on the roads, and in excluding the testimony of a “vital witness” for the defendant who did not arrive in court until […]