Since I have had questions about a recent lawsuit against the HOA, I want to address this issue today. First, I need to give you some background by explaining how the Covenants Committee (CC) functions.
The CC is a Committee which conducts Administrative Hearings where residents have an opportunity to respond to any citation that was imposed on them for rule violations. Examples of rule violations are: stop sign and speeding violations, home design violations, and inappropriate conduct. Residents who are cited for a violation may have a hearing before the CC to be heard rather than paying a fine. The CC then has jurisdiction to uphold the fine, dismiss the fine, or impose some other option.
Civil Code §4935(a) “The board may adjourn to, …, executive session to consider litigation, ……, member discipline, ……”.
This means that in a CC hearing there is no right to an Open hearing, no right to confront the accuser, and no right to cross-examine witnesses. Rules of Evidence do not follow Civil and Criminal Court Procedures, and the CC is only required to give a summary of the incident, without names of accusers. The HOA Board takes the position that we want to maintain a friendly environment in our neighborhoods and so don’t want residents confronting each other over such complaints. As a result, disclosure of complainant names is not done, we do not allow open hearings, and there is no cross-examination.
Now that we understand the Administrative hearing process, I can explain the lawsuit. A Resident, according to a contractor doing work, was interfering with work being done. When the resident did not comply with requests to stop interfering, a citation was issued to the resident for a rule violation. The resident was fined $200 after attending a CC hearing.
The Resident felt his due process rights were violated and so he sued the HOA in Small Claims court for $10,000, $200 for return of the fine and $9,800 for punitive damages. The resident claimed he was denied an open hearing, denied ability to cross examine witness, denied being able to confront the accuser, and the HOA failed to follow rules applicable to civil and/or criminal trials.
The Judge found in favor of the HOA. The Judge stated there were no violations of the Civil Code on the part of the HOA. The HOA followed the law so no damages were awarded the resident. The benefit of this lawsuit is that a Judge made clear that the process the HOA is following is correct and legal.
The effort here is to explain the rules of our hearings, so that residents understand the process and are not led to believe that their rights are being denied. We would like to avoid what some might consider frivolous lawsuits that simply cost the HOA money.