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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

Section 1942

Citation
Section 1942
Parent Document
Rich v. Schwab, 75 Cal. Rptr. 2d 170 (1998)
Jurisdiction
California (state)
Effective Date
1998-06-01

Other Sections in This Document (60)

Full Text

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Section 1942.5 permits attorney fees in any action brought for "retaliatory eviction." As we noted earlier in this opinion, before the Legislature created a statutory remedy, the court in Aweeka found that a retaliatory eviction cause of action arises at common law whenever a retaliatory rent increase causes a tenant to move. (Aweeka, supra, 20 Cal. App.3d at p. 281, 97 Cal.Rptr. 650.) Given the remedial purposes of the Legislature in creating a parallel statutory remedy, there is no basis upon which we can conclude that in making reference to a "retaliatory eviction" in section 1942.5, subdivision (g), the Legislature was referring to any narrower class of cases than previously recognized in Aweeka, Indeed, "`[i]t is a generally accepted principle that in adopting legislation, the Legislature is presumed to have had knowledge of existing domestic judicial decisions and to have enacted and amended statutes in the light of such decisions as have a direct bearing upon them. [Citations.]' [Citations.]" (Estate of McDill (1975) 14 Cal.3d 831, 839, 122 Cal.Rptr. 754, 537 P.2d 874.)