Foley Team Negotiates $42,000 Settlement for Ousted Tenants in Pro Bono Wrongful Eviction Case

San Francisco attorneys Tom Brown, Yesenia Garcia Perez and Jason Wu negotiated a $42,000 settlement on behalf of two clients who alleged they were wrongfully evicted from their East Palo Alto, Calif., home.

The Foley team, working pro bono on the case with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, represented Carolina Cornejo and Everardo Andrade, who in July 2015 were evicted from the rented home they had lived in for more than a decade on the grounds that their landlord and his family planned to occupy the property as their primary residence. The landlord also claimed the pair failed to pay one month’s rent.

Cornejo and Andrade moved out of the home on the basis of the landlord’s representations, which turned out not to be true, the Foley team says. So they filed suit against the landlord for unjust eviction, fraud, tenant harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violations of state and municipal codes.

The case had been set for trial in early December. But during a private mediation in September, the Foley team negotiated a $42,000 settlement with the landlord on behalf of the plaintiffs, which the lawyers describe as a “very meaningful and satisfactory” outcome for their clients.