High court ruling favors tenant

A rent dispute between a vision clinic and a local property management company that landed before the Utah Supreme Court has clarified that landlords can't hold a tenant's property hostage in exchange for back rent.

In a ruling issued Friday, the Utah Supreme Court upheld a district court's decision to reward treble damages on behalf of Aris Vision Institute Inc. and against Wasatch Property Management Inc.

"It sends a message to landlords not to take the law into their own hands when they have a disagreement with a tenant," said Erik Olsen, attorney for Aris Vision Institute.

According to the facts in the ruling, Aris operated a laser eye surgery clinic in an office complex owned by JDJ Properties and managed by Wasatch Property Management. In January 2002, after a downturn in the laser eye industry, Olsen said Aris was in financial trouble and was one month late on its rent.

At that point, Wasatch Properties indicated it would not allow Aris employees to remove the sensitive and expensive laser surgical equipment from the Murray complex until it received its rent. Later, during a supervised inventory, Aris managers discovered some of their equipment was missing and that two of the lasers were damaged.

Aris took legal action against the landlords. In late June 2002, the property managers allowed Aris to get its equipment, but by that time the changes in laser vision technology resulted in a one-third depreciation of the equipment.

In 1985 the Utah Supreme Court had ruled that "seizing a tenant's property by self-help is a civil wrong" and the court warned landlords that they needed to take legal action to collect on back rent. Olsen said Wasatch Property Management did not seek eviction proceedings.

A district court found that Wasatch and JDJ were liable for wrongful eviction, conversion and forcible detainer and awarded Aris three times $180,000 in damages, or $540,000 plus attorney's fees and an abatement of all future rent owed on the lease.

The Utah Court of Appeals upheld the decision, and on Friday so did the Utah Supreme Court.

Olsen said this case holds legal weight for both commercial as well as residential landlord-tenant disputes and sends a message to landlords not to take the law into their own hands.

Although Utah's laws are generally favorable toward landlords, they don't allow them to take ownership of a tenant's personal property, with exception of property that has been abandoned.

"This sends a message that while Utah is a landlord-friendly state, landlords need to follow the law," Olson said.

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E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com