Willamette Landing Apartments - 89, LLC v. Burnett

387 P.3d 501, 282 Or. App. 814, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 1541
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Willamette Landing Apartments - 89, LLC v. Burnett. Read the opinion of the Court — 280 Or. App. 703
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided December 14, 2016·No. 11C24969; A152926·Published

Opinion

DEVORE, J.

Defendant petitions for reconsideration of all issues in our decision in this case. Willamette Landing Apartments v. Burnett, 280 Or App 703, 382 P3d 512 (2016). We understand him to contend that this court erred in construing or applying the law. See ORAP 6.25(l)(e) (providing that ground for reconsideration). We allow his petition to reconsider one issue and otherwise reject his arguments without written discussion. We modify our opinion in order to address expressly, rather than implicitly, a statute that defendant stresses, in order to be clear that we have considered and distinguished it.

Defendant assigned error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for relief from judgment under ORCP 71 B(l)(e), which allows relief from a judgment that “has been satisfied, released, or discharged.” Judgment had been given for restitution of the premises by reason of defendant’s breach of his agreement to permit access for repairs. Defendant sought to stay enforcement of that judgment by interposing a supersedeas undertaking on appeal in the form of a sum of $23,976, representing the value of the future occupancy of the premises during appeal. The trial court had specifically calculated that sum so as to exclude past rent of $11,988 from the undertaking sum. After lapse of the first two years on appeal, the court allowed release of the undertaking sum to plaintiff and ordered replenishment of the undertaking for the appeal in succeeding years.

Under common law principles, defendant contended that, when a landlord accepts the payment of the rent that had formed the basis for eviction, the landlord waives the breach and reinstates the lease. Willamette Landing Apartments, 280 Or App at 715-16 (quoting Reeves v. Baker, 270 Or 837, 840, 530 P2d 30 (1974)). We noted that that general principle finds expression in ORS 91.090, which provides, in part, “if the landlord, after such default in payment of rent, accepts payment thereof, the lease is reinstated.” Willamette Landing Apartments, 280 Or App at 716. We held that such a general principle does not apply when the landlord has not accepted past rent upon which a judgment was based and has instead recovered payment of the post-judgment value [817]*817of the use and occupation of the premises, not by a voluntary agreement, but by the intervention of a law that interposes a stay and an unwanted tenancy during appeal. Id. at 717. The landlord had not accepted the $11,988 that was prejudgment rent. Moreover, the judgment had been based on defendant’s breach of cooperation in maintenance. Id. at 716. Seen in terms of ORCP 71 B(l)(e), the judgment for restitution of the premises, based on those failures, had not been “satisfied, released, or discharged.”

Once again, defendant cites cases illustrating the general rule involving a landlord’s voluntary acceptance of the prejudgment rent, but they add nothing to the analysis because they involve the general rule. For example, in Reeves, the court concluded “that when plaintiffs after default in payment of the rent accept payment of the rent upon which their action is predicated, the lease was ‘reinstated’ ***.” 270 Or at 840; see also C & K Market, Inc. v. Roccasalva, 246 Or App 277, 282-83, 265 P3d 81 (2011) (landlord’s acceptance of base rent waived right to terminate lease); Clackamas Town Center v. Jandel Foods, Inc., 88 Or App 72, 74, 744 P2d 280 (1987) (landlord’s acceptance of rent in dispute waived the payment breach).

More particularly, defendant complains that our opinion did not address ORS 105.161(4), a provision he cited, involving actions for forcible entry and detainer (FED). After the statute describes the process by which a sheriff enforces a writ of execution on an FED judgment, ORS 105.161(4) adds that “[a] judgment may not be enforced if the parties have entered a new rental agreement or if the plaintiff has accepted rent for a period of occupancy beginning after the judgment was entered.” The statute aids defendant little, if it is understood to mean that creation of a “new rental agreement” or voluntary acceptance of rent for a post-judgment period renders the eviction unenforceable. That would be little more than an elaboration on the general rule, and the statute would fail to reach the question presented here.

Defendant urges that the statute means more. He contends that ORS 105.161(4) addresses the relationship of landlord and tenant after judgment, even when an eviction judgment is stayed on appeal and the tenant holds over, not [818]*818by voluntary agreement, but by imposition of law. Defendant cites no authorities that support the application of ORS 105.161(4) under circumstances involving stays on appeal, and we are aware of none.

The circumstances involving defendant’s occupancy during an appeal do not comport with ORS 105.161(4). That is because defendant’s stay of the judgment forces an unwanted occupancy of the premises. There is no voluntary “agreement” between landlord and tenant after the eviction judgment, and the landlord has not voluntarily “accepted rent” for the post-judgment period, within the meaning of ORS 105.161(4).

As defined by the Residential Landlord Tenant Act, “‘[r]ent’ means any payment to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement, periodic or otherwise, in exchange for the right of a tenant and any permitted pet to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and to use the premises.” ORS 90.100(37) (emphasis added). A “‘rental agreement’ means all agreements, written or oral, and valid rules and regulations adopted under ORS 90.262 or 90.510(6) embodying the terms and conditions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit and premises.” ORS 90.100(38).

A landlord who received an interim or ultimate payment of an undertaking sum, during or after an appeal, merely receives payment to avoid prejudice of an unwanted occupancy pursuant to ORS 19.335(2). Because there is no mutual agreement, nor a voluntary “acceptance” of “rent” under a “rental agreement,” ORS 105.161(4) has no application to circumstances involving stays on appeal.

Instead, the statute that governs these circumstances is ORS 19.335(2), which provides:

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Willamette Landing Apartments - 89, LLC v. Burnett, 387 P.3d 501, 282 Or. App. 814, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 1541 (Or. Ct. App. 2016).

387 P.3d 501 (Willamette Landing Apartments - 89, LLC v. Burnett) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Carlson v. Myers
959 P.2d 31 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1998)
C & K Market, Inc. v. Roccasalva
265 P.3d 81 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2011)
Reeves v. Baker
530 P.2d 30 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1974)
Alimeg, Inc. v. Shlim
108 S. Ct. 2872 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Shlim v. Alimeg, Inc.
742 P.2d 54 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
Clackamas Town Center Associates v. Jandel Foods, Inc.
744 P.2d 280 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1987)
Pine Ridge Park v. Fugere
287 P.3d 1268 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2012)
Willamette Landing Apartments - 89, LLC v. Burnett
382 P.3d 512 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2016)