Judge backs Barrington Plaza tenants in eviction fight [Video]

Tenants of the Barrington Plaza apartments who have been fighting their evictions from the West Los Angeles complex won a major victory Thursday when a judge issued a tentative ruling finding the building’s owners improperly ordered tenants to vacate while never intending to “permanently” remove the units from the rental market.

The rent-controlled three-tower complex is owned by Douglas Emmett Inc. and Barrington Pacific LLC, which maintained the evictions are necessary to install fire sprinklers and other fire-safety infrastructure in a complex with a history of dangerous fires. But tenants facing eviction sued last year, saying the owners were unlawfully using the 1985 Ellis Act to evict all residents, and that the legislation actually was created to allow mom-and-pop landlords to leave the rental business and take the units off the rental market.

In a 19-page tentative ruling, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jay Ford III found that building owners …