Milby v. Pote

189 A.3d 1065

Larry MILBY, in his Individual Capacity, and Southern Christian Ministries,

v.Chyrell POTE, Executrix of the Estate of Margaret B. Shaw, a/k/a Margaret D. Shaw, a/k/a Margaret Shaw, Chyrell Pote, Terry Shaw, and All Unknowns,

Chyrell Pote, Executrix of the Estate of Margaret B. Shaw, a/k/a Margaret D. Shaw, a/k/a Margaret Shaw,

v.Southern Christian Ministries, Larry Milby, Trustee,Appeal of: Larry Milby, in His Individual Capacity, and Southern Christian Ministries, and Southern Christian Ministries, Larry Milby, Trustee

No. 1295 WDA 2017

Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

Submitted February 5, 2018

Filed June 7, 2018

Michael B. Cohen, Altoona, for appellants.

Robert W. Lape, Jr., Roaring Springs, for appellees.

BEFORE: LAZARUS, J., KUNSELMAN, J., and STEVENS, P.J.E.^*

OPINION BY KUNSELMAN, J.:

Larry Milby and Southern Christian Ministries ("SCM") appeal from an order in consolidated cases, denying their claims for redress and ejecting them from the Shaw Mobile Home Park ("Park") for failure to pay rent and comply with the Park rules. We affirm.

The relevant facts and procedural history of these cases are as follows. The parties have a landlord-tenant relationship spanning nearing 50 years. Since 2013, however, disputes between them have resulted in several lawsuits, including this one.

Larry Milby and his wife, Violet, have lived in a manufactured home in the Shaw Mobile Home Park since the early 1970s. When they first moved there, the Park was owned by Wayne and Margaret Shaw. Mr. Shaw died in 1996. Mrs. Shaw became the Park owner by virtue of his death. She was still living during part of the relevant period of this lawsuit, but died in 2016. Thus, her daughter Chyrell Pote, as executrix of her estate, is named as a defendant in one of these consolidated actions and as the plaintiff in the other. For simplicity sake, we will refer to the Shaws, the estate and the execturix collectively as the Park Owners.¹

When the Milbys moved to the Park, the leases for all of the Park lots were verbal. According to Mr. Milby, the terms of the verbal lease included $35 per month in rent² with no termination or expiration date; the term of the lease "was like forever" with no end to it—"it was for as long as you wanted to stay". The Milbys' lot size was defined by an imaginary line between them and their neighbors, primarily based upon the area each resident maintained; the Park was never divided formally into lots. Lease terms and conditions were the same for all tenants, except for the amount of rent; newcomers typically were charged a higher rent than existing tenants. There were no specific written rules or regulations for the Park.

Gradually over time, the Milbys' rent increased in relatively minor increments, and when sewage lines were installed in the Park, the monthly rent included a fee to cover this additional cost. Other increases were made randomly in amounts of $10 or $20 at a time to bring the older leases in line with newer leases.

In or around 2006, SCM began to lease lots in the Park. SCM, is a not-for-profit Christian trust, formed in Kentucky. It owns property in Kentucky, Florida and Pennsylvania. The trust itself was never registered as a corporation with the Pennsylvania Department of State and never obtained a certificate of authority from the State to do business here. Mr. Milby is the sole trustee of SCM. The purpose of the trust is to aid and benefit working families who do not receive assistance from the government. Under the trust, SCM has the power to manage trust real estate, including the power to lease, make repairs, and alterations.

SCM eventually acquired verbal leases for eight lots, placing mobile homes on seven of them (lots 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 16 and 19). At some point in time, SCM took over leasing lot 16, the Milbys' personal lot. The remaining lot, (lot 15) SCM used for storage.

By 2015, rent for all of the SCM residential lots was $146 plus a $72 sewer fee ($218 total per lot); rent for the storage lot was $146. SCM subleased the residential lots for $520 per month.

Over the past few years, disputes over rent arose between SCM and the Park Owners. In 2013 and 2014, the Park Owners filed three ejectment actions against SCM. In the first action, the trial court, by order dated May 16, 2014, ejected SCM from lot 9 for failing to obtain permission from the Park Owners to place a home on the lot, and for failing to obtain a permit and inspection of the lot, in violation of the local building code. SCM did not appeal this ejectment.³

The second and third actions were consolidated, and after a hearing on April 27, 2015, the trial court concluded that the Park violated the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act ("MHCRA") for failing to have written leases. Ultimately, the trial court entered a decision on July 8, 2015, in favor of SCM on the ejectment actions.

The Park Owners did not appeal the ejectment decision, but directed their attorneyto send a letter, dated August 7, 2015, to SCM's attorney informing him that the Park Owners would be sending out new written leases to avoid future problems. Counsel further advised that he was directing the Park Owners to set corner markings to identify the dimensions of each lot. He also asked SCM's attorney to inform SCM, and Mr. Milby, as trustee, of these formal changes so there would be no issues.

A few months later, on November 2, 2015, SCM advised the Park Owners by letter that it would be paying rent only in the amount agreed to in the valid, original verbal leases made with Wayne Shaw prior to his death, and that pursuant to its calculation of rent due, SCM submitted a rent check in the amount of $936.⁴ At the same time, SCM sent a Notice to Cease Criminal Acts and Notice of Needed Repairs to the Park Owners complaining about conditions in the Park and threatening criminal charges.

On November 5, 2015, the Park Owners sent SCM a notice informing SCM that:

[t]his letter constitutes 60 days formal notice of the community owner's intent to offer the new, renewed or extended leases or shall increase rent and/or payables to the Owner/Lessor, from you, the Lessee. No increased rent or fee charges shall be effective against you prior to the 61^st day after posting of this Notice, which has been done.

The notice further advised that "[y]ou, as the lessee shall have 30 days from the date of this mailing to either accept the new, renewed or extended rental agreement or to notify the Landlord/Owner of your intent to vacate within 30 days." The written leases, which SCM allegedly had requested since 2008, were forwarded with this letter.

The new written leases contained the rental amounts due for each lot and the effective dates. The new leases for the six residential lots (2, 3, 11, 12, 16 and 19) were to become effective February 1, 2016. The new rent amount would be $176 per month, ($30 more than the current rent of $146), plus the sewer fee of $72 per month ($248 total per lot). Until the effective date of the new leases, the current rent, $146 plus the sewer fee, was to be paid ($218 total per lot). The new lease for the storage lot (15), was to become effective sooner, on December 1, 2015, because it was a non-residential lease and not subject to the MHCRA. The new rent amount for that lot would be $148 per month (also $30 more than the current rent of $118). The Park Owners sent similar written leases to all other tenants of the Park.

On November 9, 2015, a few days after sending the written leases and a week after receiving the reduced rent check from SCM, counsel for the Park Owners returned SCM's $936 rent check and issued SCM a Notice of Violations. This notice advised SCM that it had violated the rules for non-payment of rent for the residential lots because the rent check was far below the $1,426 due for November. The notice further advised SCM that it violated Park rules by sending the rent check to the attorney for the Park Owners rather than putting it in the Park's rent box. The notice warned SCM that eviction proceedings would be commenced if the full amount of rent for the residential lots was not paid within thirty (30) days. The letter accompanying the notice also indicated that the November rent for the storage lot, in the amount of $118, was delinquent.

SCM received both the notice for the new leases and the notice of violation of the existing leases on November 12, 2015.

Mr. Milby, as trustee for SCM, refused to sign the new written leases. According to him, many of the terms and conditions of the new leases were not consistent with the old verbal leases. In particular, the new leases restricted the number of parked vehicles tenants could keep on their lot and prohibited other items from being stored on the property, many of which Mr. Milby owned and stored on his lot. The lot dimensions were not consistent with what Mr. Milby thought they were. Despite Mr. Milby's misgivings about the new leases, all of the other Park tenants signed the new lease.

On December 8, 2015, Mr. Milby and SCM initiated this civil action. In late 2015, Mr. Milby and SCM filed a lawsuit pro se in federal court, raising similar issues to those in this case.⁵ The federal suit was voluntarily dismissed sometime in 2016.

In their first amended complaint in this action, SCM and Mr. Milby alleged that certain dangerous and unacceptable conditions existed in the Park: uncapped, concrete sewer pipes protruding on the SCM lots; metal stakes stuck out of the ground to identify the boundaries of each lot; a damaged utility pole was leaning toward lot 12; two caved in holes from the outdated septic system remained unfilled on lots 12 and 16; and an area of ponding and stagnating water formed behind lot 3. Although SCM complained to the Park about these problems, they had not been addressed. Mr. Milby, in his individual capacity, and SCM filed this action alleging that these conditions constituted a private and/or public nuisance and that these conditions infringed upon their right of...