Guthartz v. Lewis

DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.

Barnett Guthartz, the owner of a 238-unit apartment complex called Bay Terrace Apartments, was sued by sixty of his tenants. As third-party beneficiaries of a regulatory agreement between Guthartz and the FHA, the insurer of the mortgage on the buildings, the tenants claimed that Gu-thartz had collected from them rents and security deposits in excess of the maximum allowed under the FHA rent schedule,1 and sought to recover these excess payments, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees. The *602trial court, in a non-jury trial, found Gu-thartz liable and appointed a special…