Court Finds that Landlord Constructively Evicted Tenant and Awards Damages Including Reasonable Attorney’s Fees

Our client was living in a spacious single-family home in Bel Air, Maryland. From the outside, you may have guessed that a traditional upper middle-class family of four was living in the house. The reality was that the owner of the property was living in the house and renting out each bedroom as an individual apartment with the living areas of the house, e.g., kitchen, bathrooms, basement, garage, etc., as communal space.

When our client first contacted us, our client had been sued by his landlord/roommate/owner of the property for Breach of Lease and Failure to Pay Rent. Prior to this, the landlord/roommate/owner of the property had unsuccessfully sued our client twice for Breach of Lease. This time, our client hired Mr. Breidenstein to handle his case.

At trial, our client testified, other witnesses testified on his behalf, and the landlord/roommate/owner of the property testified. Mr. Breidenstein conducted examinations of all the witnesses, presented evidence to the Court, and asserted legal arguments in favor of our client.

After hours of testimony and argument, the Court found in favor of our client regarding the Breach of Lease and Failure to Pay Rent claims. The Court went a step further and found that the landlord/roommate/owner of the property had constructively evicted our client through his actions. The Court ordered that the landlord/roommate/owner had to reimburse our client for his legal fees paid to JPB Law.

*** It should be noted that the Lease Agreement in this case contained language to the effect of, “if either party must go to court to enforce the terms of this lease agreement, then the losing party in court must pay the winning party’s reasonable attorney’s fees.”***