Just a few more facts from the Court records, as well as some comments. According to the Eviction Complaint, Excelsior Development, LLC, alleged that Ahmed Jama and Rukia Fatah rented space A114 at 922 E. 24th St., from November 2003 through October 1, 2008.
A.O. Sabri signed the Complaint under oath, stating that he was a "partner and plantiff" in the action. He/Excelsior alleged that Jama and Fatah "have excercised an activity which was not allowed to do under the lease agreement by sub- leasing the shop and 2) secondly, tenant failed to obtain proper insurance." There are no allegations of nonpayment of rent, but if it is true that Excelsior accepted rent after these alleged breaches of lease, the general law is that Excelsior waived its right to evict on that basis. Alas, no one showed up at the hearing on behalf of the tenants to make this argument, assuming it was true. In any event, the Complaint--according to the Affidavit of Service on file with the Court--was hand-delivered (what we lawyers call 'personally served') to Ahmed and Fatah on January 30, 2004. The process server was Natalia Rendon Gonzalez, who swore under oath that she gave the Summons and Complaint to Ahmed and Fatah on January 30, 2004. The service would have had to occur after 3:45 p.m. on the 30th, as the Complaint was not filed until that time. Although Bob Albee raises the issue of mailing of the Summons, service by mail for an eviction action is not allowed, except in certain circumstances that are not present here. It must be served personally on the tenants. According to the referee's decision and order, John Bergin appeared on behalf of Excelsior. No one appeared on behalf of Ahmed or Fatah, and the court declared them in default and ordered the issuance of an immediate writ of recovery. Steve Meldahl states that I am 'wrong' to say that most evictions are scheduled 14 days out. I disagree. Typically, the court schedules them 10 to 14 days out, and a majority of them are usually set 14 days out--giving landlords the maximum amount of time to serve the tenant. While it is perfectly legal to request a hearing in 7 days, and some sophisticated landlords--like Mr. Meldahl--know and do this, the vast majority of cases are set out 14 days from the day of filing. So, the landlord in this case obviously wanted to hurry this case along, taking the chance that it could and would personally serve the tenants in the roughly 8 hour window left to serve them on January 30, the day of filing. Some strange irony in this. Bob Albee states that "Ventura Village voted to have its executive committee investigate allegations of exploitation of businesses by Suuq owners/managers." Sounds good and probably a neighborly thing to do. When Project 504, however, advocated for residential tenants in 1822, 1818, and 1828 Park Avenue, Ventura Village brought a motion condemning Project 504 and stating in part that VV will "continue to support the right of property owners to engage in legal and acceptable rental practices without fear of outside agencies engaging in adversarial and antagonistic practices." Ironically, one of the issues at 1828 Park Avenue was the lack of individual mailboxes and the collection of the mail everyday by the owner/resident caretaker, who then delivered it to individual residential tenants in the building, a practice we objected to. It's rather interesting to see the outrage now at that same practice in a commercial context, and I bring it up more as an interesting sidebar than anything else. One wonders if VV would similarly object to the owner of 1828 Park Avenue about a practice that affects people in their homes, if the practice still continues to this day. Gregory Luce Project 504 Residing in St. Paul Gregory Luce Project 504 1922 25th Avenue N. Minneapolis MN 55411 (612) 521-8888 REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
