Eka Mgmt. v. H.B.
| Decision Date | 21 November 2022 |
| Docket Number | A-0814-21 |
| Parties | EKA MANAGEMENT, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. H.B., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New Jersey Superior Court – Appellate Division |
This opinion shall not "constitute precedent or be binding upon any court." Although it is posted on the internet this opinion is binding only on the parties in the case and its use in other cases is limited. R. 1:36-3.
Argued May 23, 2022
On appeal from the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division Camden County, Docket No. LT-001601-20.
Kenneth Goldman argued the cause for appellant (South Jersey Legal Services, Inc., attorneys; John Pendergast, Sarah V Connor and Kenneth Goldman, on the briefs).
Derek D. Reed argued the cause for amicus curiae New Jersey Apartment Association (Ehrlich, Petriello, Gudin, Plaza &Reed, attorneys; Derek D. Reed and Matthew A. Sebera, on the brief).
Catherine Weiss argued the cause for amicus curiae American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, Community Health Law Project, Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, Essex County Legal Aid Association, Fair Share Housing Center, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, Ironbound Community Corporation, Latino Action Network Foundation, Latino Coalition of New Jersey, Make the Road New Jersey, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-New Jersey State Conference, New Jersey Citizen Action, New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, New Jersey Tenants Organization, Rutgers Law School (Camden) Housing Justice Program, Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, Solutions to End Poverty Soon, and Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (Lowenstein Sandler LLP, attorneys; Catherine Weiss, Natalie J. Kraner and Daniela Geraldo, on the brief).
Respondent has not filed a brief.
Before Judges Messano, Accurso and Rose.
ACCURSO, J.A.D.
Plaintiff EKA Management purportedly obtained a default judgment of possession for late payment and non-payment of rent against defendant H.B. in August 2021 when she failed to appear for a settlement conference scheduled pursuant to the Supreme Court's July 1, 2021 Order and Notice to the Bar.
H.B. subsequently completed the Department of Community Affairs Eviction and Homelessness Prevention Certification form promulgated pursuant to N.J.S.A. 52:27D-287.9(d)(1)(b), part of the August 2021 legislation to "help struggling tenants avoid displacement" following the end of the pandemic eviction moratorium. Although the form calculated her household income as below 80% of area median income for four-person households in Camden, placing her in the moderate-income level pursuant to the statute, and she provided the form to the court, the summary dispossess action was not dismissed as H.B. asserts it should have been. Instead, H.B. was presented with a lockout date.
H.B., who had been representing herself in the action, sought help from South Jersey Legal Services, which immediately filed an application for an order to show cause as to why the judgment should not be vacated and the underlying complaint dismissed as void. That application was summarily denied the same day, without any explanation, the court only extending the lockout date until November 23, 2021. H.B. filed a notice of appeal and a request to stay the judgment with the trial court. The court denied the request for stay pending appeal, granting only an additional fourteen-day final stay of the lockout.
We granted H.B.'s application to file an emergent motion on short notice for stay pending appeal, entering a temporary stay pending our disposition of the motion. We subsequently granted the motion for stay pending appeal, accelerated the case and granted the motions of the New Jersey Apartment Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, Community Health Law Project, Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, Essex County Legal Aid Association, Fair Share Housing Center, Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, Ironbound Community Corporation, Latino Action Network Foundation, Latino Coalition of New Jersey, Make the Road New Jersey, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People-New Jersey State Conference, New Jersey Citizen Action, New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, New Jersey Tenants Organization, Rutgers Law School (Camden) Housing Justice Program, Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice, Solutions to End Poverty Soon, and Volunteer Lawyers for Justice to appear as amicus curiae and participate in oral argument.
We granted the amicus motions with the obvious intent of addressing the conflicting interpretations of N.J. Pub. L. 2021, c. 188, now codified at N.J.S.A. 52:27D-287.7 to -.11, offered by Legal Services and the public interest amici supporting its position and the industry association amicus.
After reviewing the file, however, we've discovered an avalanche of ordinary, reversible errors having little or nothing to do with the new legislation. That makes this case a poor vehicle for addressing and resolving the statutory interpretation issues raised by Legal Services and pressed by amici. We accordingly reverse the judgment of possession and dismiss the complaint without addressing the effect of the statute on the proceeding.
Plaintiff EKA Management Rental and Sales LLC, which has not filed a brief on appeal, rented a single-family house in Camden to H.B. in July 2019 pursuant to a one-year lease at a monthly rent of $1,250, payable on the first day of each month. H.B., recently divorced, moved into the home with her three children, two young adults and a freshman in high school. While H.B.'s wages were the primary source of the family's income, she relied on the incomes of her two older children to meet monthly expenses.
Plaintiff filed this summary dispossess action on February 10, 2020. Although organized as a limited liability company, plaintiff did not proceed through an attorney as required by Rules 6:10 and 1:21-1(c). Instead, the action was filed on behalf of plaintiff by one of its members, Ericka Honer, who also executed the landlord verification. Offered the options on the complaint form of "non-payment of rent" or "other (required notices attached)," Honer checked "other," alleging "excessive late payments from September 2019 - February 2020 (no payment)." No notice to cease habitual late payment of rent, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1(j), or notice to quit served one month prior to the institution of the action, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.2(b), were attached to the complaint, however, as required by Rule 6:3-4(d). Honer also averred H.B. owed base rent of $1,250 for February and March, notwithstanding the March rent would not be due for another three weeks, as well as a $90 late fee for each month and $55 in court costs for a total due of $2,735.
The landlord/tenant summons for removal for "excessive late payments" issued on February 14, 2020, with a March 19, 2020 trial date. On March 13, 2020, the court rescheduled the case for trial in April. On March 27, the Supreme Court, which had already suspended landlord/tenant calendars for two weeks, Notice to the Bar: Landlord/Tenant-COVID-19 Coronavirus- Suspension of Court Sessions (Mar. 14, 2020), issued an omnibus order in which it extended the suspension through April 26, 2020, and further provided that "lockouts of residential tenants (evictions) are suspended in accordance with Executive Order 106." Notice to the Bar: Omnibus Order on COVID-19 Issues (Mar. 27, 2020) (First Omnibus Order).
In March 2020, H.B. lost her job when her employer "was forced to close due to COVID-19 lockdown measures." See Exec. Order No. 107 (Mar. 21, 2020), 52 N.J.R. 554(a) (Apr. 6, 2020). On March 31, 2020, pursuant to the First Omnibus Order, the court rescheduled the trial again to May 28, 2020. On April 24, 2020, the Supreme Court issued its Second Omnibus Order, extending the suspension of landlord/tenant trials while making clear there was no bar on "settlement negotiations, case management conferences, motions, and other proceedings, in an effort to resolve matters." Notice to the Bar: COVID-19-Second Omnibus Order on Court Operations (Apr. 24, 2020). Accordingly, on that same date, the court again rescheduled trial, this time to July 2, 2020.
On June 11, 2020, the Court ordered that courts presiding over landlord/tenant proceedings "shall schedule conferences, including . . . settlement negotiations in an effort to resolve matters." Notice to the Bar: COVID-19-Fourth Omnibus Order (June 11, 2020). The conference in this case, however, was not scheduled for more than a year, and in the interim, the parties entered into a new lease on July 1, 2020, at the same monthly rent for an eight-month term, which would thereafter continue on a month-to-month basis.
On June 4, 2021, the Governor declared the end of the public health emergency but continued the state of emergency. Exec Order No. 244 (June 4, 2021), 53 N.J.R. 1131(a) (July 6, 2021). Following that executive order, the Supreme Court on July 1, 2021, issued an order instructing courts to "schedule mandatory settlement conferences" in pending residential landlord/tenant actions. Notice to the Bar: Landlord Tenant-Interim Process for Mandatory Settlement Conferences (July 1, 2021). Courts were instructed to "provide notice of the consequences for failure to appear" at such a conference, namely dismissal of the action for landlords failing to appear and for tenants, default to be "entered by the clerk." The Order relaxed Rule 6:6-2 to allow the clerk to enter the default provided the tenant "has been noticed that failure to...
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