California Homeowner Fights City's For-Profit Prosecutors from Taking His Home

Two years ago, Norco homeowner Ron Mugar received a notice indicating he had violated the city’s housing code.

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https://ij.org/press-release/norco-homeowner-fights-back-with-lawsuit-after-city-attempts-to-take-his-home/

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Ron had admittedly allowed his home and backyard to become cluttered with hobby machinery. But this time, instead of fining him or asking him to bring his property up to code, the city’s private, for-profit prosecutors—lawyers with the firm of Dapeer, Rosenblit & Litvak LLP—declared they were going to take over ownership of his house using a legal process known as “receivership.”

Ron cleaned up his yard, hired a lawyer, and fought back in court—spending his hard-earned savings to defend himself—and won. Ron’s attorney got the receivership halted without a receiver ever doing any work or taking the property. Ron then brought the property into full compliance. Ron also fought the private prosecutor’s demands that he fix things for which he was never actually cited.

The court eventually ruled that Ron had brought his property into compliance and it then vacated the receivership order. But that didn’t stop the city’s hired lawyers from seeking more than $60,000 from Ron in attorneys’ fees. Attempting to collect attorneys’ fees for a prosecution that the city lost is patently illegal, which is why Ron has partnered with the Institute for Justice to put an end to the city’s use of private lawyers to enforce municipal code violations once and for all.
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