Section 1808

Citation: Section 1808
Parent Document: McHugh v. Santa Monica Rent Control Board, 777 P.2d 91 (1989)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 1989-08-17
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1156663/mchugh-v-santa-monica-rent-cont... ↗

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The majority distort the scope of judicial review of legislative enactments and ignore the rationale for their own standard in rejecting the treble damage element of the ordinance. They do not question the general power of administrative agencies to impose penalties. They cannot; their own citations demonstrate that the matter is settled at the state and federal levels, and that many of our own state regulations provide for administrative penalties. (See maj. opn., ante, at p. 378, fn. 45.) They conclude, too, that "restitutive" compensatory damages are appropriate in the rent control context. Nonetheless they reject the former provision of the Santa Monica ordinance which provided that the Board may order a landlord who has overcharged on rents to pay the tenant "three (3) times the amount by which the payment ... received or retained exceeds the maximum lawful rent." (Santa Monica City Charter, art. XVIII, § 1809(a).) They offer two explanations. The first is that other methods such as "imposition of fines or penalties, awards of costs and attorney fees" could be used to induce compliance with the rent control ordinance, and there is no reason to think these would be insufficient. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 378.) Second, they worry that the authority to award treble damages will encourage arbitrary and "disproportionate" results. (Ibid.)

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