Trial in the eviction cases of the last 13 households still living in Lincoln Place have been postponed until at least March of this year. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia L. Collins, sitting in Santa Monica, set the trial for this month (January 2007) in a December 4, 2006 order; later in December, the cases were transferred to Judge Cesar Sarmiento, sitting in Malibu.
On Friday, January 12, Judge Sarmiento, citing his congested calendar, scheduled pretrial motions in the cases for March 22 in Malibu, with no fixed date for the trial itself, such that the trial of the 13 cases may be delayed to April or May. (A 14th household still living at Lincoln Place is the subject of a separately pending case in Santa Monica.)
While delays in eviction cases generally benefit tenants who can remain on the premises, Lincoln Place tenants’ spokesmen say that they “are impatient for a resolution of our situation, and it is hard for those of us who are living here with so few neighbors.”
The last occupied units are sprinkled throughout the once 795-unit Lincoln Place apartment complex that consisted of 52 apartment buildings built on 35 acres in Venice in 1950. The current owner, AIMCO Venezia, wants to further develop the property and so is attempting to remove the remaining tenants. Seven of the original 52 buildings have been demolished. Fixtures, hardware and appliances have been disappearing from vacant units, and the remaining tenants have expressed security concerns.
