Westview Mobile Home Park, LLC v. Lockhart

• Docket Number: DA 22-0358
• Decision Date: 31 October 2023
• Citation: 2023 MT 201
• Parties: WESTVIEW MOBILE HOME PARK, LLC, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. DAVID LOCKHART AND DOREEN LOCKHART, Defendants and Appellants. GREENER MONTANA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, LLC, TRAVIS MARTINEZ, Individually and KRISTYN MARTINEZ, Individually, Plaintiffs and Appellees, v. HYDI CUNNINGHAM, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Montana Supreme Court

1

2023 MT 201

WESTVIEW MOBILE HOME PARK, LLC, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. DAVID LOCKHART AND DOREEN LOCKHART, Defendants and Appellants.

GREENER MONTANA PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, LLC, TRAVIS MARTINEZ, Individually and KRISTYN MARTINEZ, Individually, Plaintiffs and Appellees, v. HYDI CUNNINGHAM, Defendant and Appellant.

No. DA 22-0358

Supreme Court of Montana

October 31, 2023

Submitted on Briefs: August 23, 2023

APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, In and For the County of Missoula, Cause No. DV-22-545 Honorable Shane Vannatta, Presiding Judge

APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Twenty-First Judicial District In and For the County of Ravalli, Cause No. DV-22-187 Honorable Howard F. Recht, Presiding Judge

For Appellants David and Doreen Lockhart:

David J. Lockhart, Doreen Lockhart, Self-represented, Missoula Montana For Appellant Hydi Cunningham:

S. Chase Rosario, Malcom &Piers PLLC, Lewistown, Montana

Amy E. Hall, Montana Legal Services Association, Helena, Montana

For Appellee Westview Mobile Home Park, LLC:

Eric R. Henkel, W. Bridger Christian, Christian, Samson &Baskett, PLLC, Missoula, Montana

For Appellees Greener Montana Property Management, LLC, Travis Martinez, and Kristyn Martinez:

Katherine C. Holliday, Carmody Holliday Legal Services, PLLC, Missoula, Montana

For Amici:

James A. Bowditch, Thomas J. Leonard, Boone Karlberg P.C., Missoula, Montana (for Montana Association of Realtors®)

Robert Farris-Olsen, Morrison, Sherwood, Wilson &Deola, PLLP, Helena, Montana (for Montana Homeownership Network d/b/a/ Neighborworks Montana and the National Consumer Law Center)

OPINION

INGRID GUSTAFSON, JUSTICE

¶1 This matter involves consolidated appeals regarding the interpretation of the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act from mobile home owners who have been evicted from their lots. David Lockhart and Doreen Lockhart (the Lockharts) appeal from the June 1, 2022 Order issued by the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, which upheld the April 27, 2022 Order for Possession issued by the Missoula County Justice Court. The Lockharts were ordered to vacate and remove all personal property from a mobile home lot owned by Westview Mobile Home Park, LLC (Westview). Hydi Cunningham (Cunningham) appeals from the July 29, 2022 Opinion and Order and the August 30, 2022 Order Denying Motion to Alter or Amend Summary Judgment and Denying Motion to Stay issued by the Twenty-First Judicial District Court, Ravalli County. These orders followed the Ravalli County Justice Court's May 10, 2022 Judgment and Order for Possession of Property and Writ of Assistance. Cunningham was ordered to vacate the mobile home lot she had been renting from Greener Montana Property Management, LLC (Greener Montana).

¶2 We address the following restated issue on appeal:

Whether the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act allows a lot-only landlord to terminate a homeowner tenant's month-to-month lease when the parties' written lease allows no-cause termination upon 30 days' notice.

¶3 We reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶4 This consolidated case involves two evictions of mobile home owners from mobile home lots which they rented. In 2007, the Montana Legislature enacted the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act (MRMHLRA or the Act), which is codified in Title 70, chapter 33, MCA. 2007 Mont. Laws ch. 267, §§ 7-51. The provisions of the Act govern the present disputes, and we are called to interpret the meaning of the Act as it relates to no-cause terminations.

¶5 The Lockharts are the owners of a mobile home. In 2015, they entered into a "month to month" lot rental agreement with Westview to rent a mobile home lot at 4736 Graham Street in Missoula. The rental agreement asserted it was governed by the Montana Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1977 and provided that "Tenant's occupancy will be from month to month, and the tenancy may be terminated by either Landlord or Tenant, upon providing a written thirty (30) day notice of termination." On January 10, 2022, Westview served the Lockharts with a Notice of Lease Termination, informing them their lease was terminated effective February 13, 2022. The Lockharts did not vacate the mobile home lot, so Westview filed a complaint for possession in the Missoula County Justice Court. The justice court ultimately determined Westview was not required to have cause to terminate the Lockharts' lease, ordered Westview was entitled to immediate possession of the mobile home lot, and gave the Lockharts 30 days to "remove all personal possessions, including but not limited to the mobile home, from said mobile home lot."^[1] On appeal, the Missoula County District Court affirmed the justice court's order, providing another 30 days for the Lockharts to vacate and remove all personal property from the lot.

¶6 Cunningham also owns a mobile home. In 2008, she purchased the mobile home, which was already located on the subject lot at 2629 (aka 2633) Dorothy Drive in Victor, and began residing there while renting the lot. In 2015, Cunningham and Greener Montana entered into a lot rental agreement for a term of one month, from December 1, 2015, to January 1, 2016, which would "automatically renew from month to month on the same terms and conditions as herein, and so on until terminated by either party giving to the other at least 30 days written notice prior to the expiration of the current term." On January 12, 2022, Greener Montana served Cunningham with a "30-Day Notice to Quit and Terminate the Rental Agreement," which required Cunningham to surrender possession of the lot to Greener Montana by March 1, 2022. Cunningham did not vacate the lot, and Greener Montana filed an action for possession in the Ravalli County Justice Court. The justice court issued an order granting possession to Greener Montana on May 10, 2022, and gave Cunningham 72 hours to vacate the premises. On appeal, the Ravalli County District Court reviewed the MRMHLRA as it related to no-cause termination, determined Greener Montana's termination of Cunningham's month to month lease without cause was valid, and gave Cunningham 30 days to "vacate the premises and remove her mobile home."

¶7 The Lockharts and Cunningham each appealed. We consolidated the appeals as both call on this Court to interpret the scope of the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act as it relates to the no-cause terminations of month-to-month lot rental agreements of mobile home owners.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶8 The interpretation and construction of a statute is a matter of law, which we review de novo. Hines v. Topher Realty, LLC, 2018 MT 44, ¶ 12, 390 Mont. 352, 413 P.3d 813 (citation omitted).

DISCUSSION

¶9 Whether the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act allows a lot-only landlord to terminate a homeowner tenant's month-to-month lease when the parties' written lease allows no-cause termination upon 30 days' notice.

¶10 This Court has not previously had cause to interpret the termination provisions of the MRMHLRA, which was enacted by the Legislature in 2007, and this case is a matter of first impression. The Lockharts and Cunningham assert the Act prohibits no-cause termination of mobile home lot rent agreements. Westview and Greener Montana (occasionally "the landlords"), meanwhile, contend the prohibition of no-cause termination in mobile home lot rent agreements would lead to absurd results and that the Act specifically contemplates month-to-month tenancies which may be terminated without cause.

¶11 "In the construction of a statute, the office of the judge is simply to ascertain and declare what is in terms or in substance contained therein, not to insert what has been omitted or to omit what has been inserted. Where there are several provisions or particulars, such a construction is, if possible, to be adopted as will give effect to all." Section 1-2-101, MCA. "Statutory interpretation, the goal of which is to give effect to the legislature's intent, begins with the text of the statute." Giacomelli v. Scottsdale Ins. Co., 2009 MT 418 ¶ 18, 354 Mont. 15, 221 P.3d 666. "We must, to the extent possible, effect the manifest intent of the Legislature in accordance with the clear and unambiguous language of its enactments in context, without resort to other means of construction." Babcock v. Casey's Mgmt., LLC, 2021 MT 215, ¶ 6, 405 Mont. 237, 494 P.3d 322. We do this "by first attempting to construe the subject term or provision in accordance with the plain meaning of its express language, in context of the statute as a whole, and in furtherance of the manifest purpose of the statutory provision and the larger statutory scheme in which it is included." Babcock, ¶ 6.

¶12 As this case concerns the interpretation and application of a statute, the MRMHLRA, we begin with the relevant text. The Act "applies to landlord-tenant relationships in which the landlord is renting a lot to the tenant for placement of the tenant's mobile home," § 70-33-104(1), MCA, but does not apply to the "combined rental of the lot and mobile home, when the landlord owns both," because that situation is "covered by the Montana Residential Landlord and Tenant Act of 1977." Section 70-33-104(3), MCA. Westview and Greener Montana assert the contentions of the Lockharts and Cunningham regarding no-cause terminations are completely undercut by language included in § 70-33-201, MCA:

Unless the rental agreement provides otherwise:

(a) the tenant shall pay as rent the rental value for the use and occupancy of the lot as determined by the landlord;

(b) rent is payable at the landlord's address or using electronic funds transfer to an account designated for the payment of rent by the

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