Slumlord Told to Pay Tenants $1.83 Million

A millionaire slum landlord blamed for allowing his mid-Wilshire area apartment building to become overrun with rats, cockroaches, sewage and street gangs was ordered by a Superior Court jury today to pay $1.83 million to his former tenants.

Attorneys for both the tenants and the landlord, Michael Schaefer, said they believe the judgment is by far the largest ever in California against a landlord. The award includes $1.6 million in punitive damages and $231,000 for breach of contract, personal injury and emotional distress.

Schaefer, a lawyer and former San Diego City Councilman who now resides in Baltimore, owned the 64-unit apartment building at 757 S. Berendo St. for eight months in 1981.

Plumbing breakdowns caused ceilings and a floors to cave in and sewage to flow through a ground floor corridor. Tenants said that rats, mice and cockroaches crawled over them while they slept. Hoodlums were able to terrorize law-abiding tenants because Schaefer failed to provide adequate security. A retired fire inspector described the conditions as “worse than any I have seen in an inhabited building all of my 23-year career with the Fire Department.”

Asked outside of court today if he felt shame or guilt, Schaefer said he “felt a sense of regret for the discomfort of the families who lived there.”