A tenant sued our client, the landlord/property owner of a high-rise apartment building on the Wilshire corridor in Westwood. The tenant’s lawsuit was for hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal property damages from a fire which she claimed was caused by the landlord’s negligence. Slaughter, Reagan & Cole’s attorneys Gabriele Lashly and Dien Le moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the tenant’s claims for personal property damages were barred because the tenant failed to obtain renter’s insurance as required under her lease. The trial court rejected the tenant’s argument that the landlord’s failure to enforce the insurance requirement during the tenancy effectively waived this provision of the lease. The court agreed with our arguments that even though the tenant never received notice of her failure to obtain insurance, such provision was not waived by the landlord. The court granted summary judgment on the tenant’s suit in favor of our client, resulting in the dismissal of the tenant’s claims.
