Motion,Ex Parte: MICHAEL R CARVER VS HOVIK MEGUERIAN ET AL

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                                       MICHAEL CARVER V. LUCINE MEGUERIAN ET AL.                                    JUL 0 9 2020
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               . Date of Hearing:          July 8, 2020                 Trial Date:    Post—tria1                           W0        ‘Deputy *0
                   Department:             W                            Case No.       BC5 66645

                   Moving Party:           Defendants Balboa Luxury Condominiums, Van Alden, Inc. and Hovik
                                           Meguerian
                   Responding Party:       Untimely opposition led on July 6, but considered by court.                                                 '

                       I.          Background

                            Plaintiff Michael Carver led the instant action on December 12, 2014 against Lucine
                   Meguerian, her brother, Hovik Meguerian (also known as John), Vanalden, Inc. and Balboa
                   Luxury Condominiums, Inc. The rst amended complaint was led on April 25, 2015 and
                   asserted twelve causes of action based on a shooting which occurred on December 15, 2012. On
                   that date, Lucine and John Meguerian’s father, Hrant Meguerian, obtained a gun and, after a
                   brief argument in the home where all had gathered for a meal, shot Lucine’s mother, Ana
                   Meguerian, and her close companion, Michael Carver. Ana Meguerian died as a result of the
                   shooting, and plaintiff was seriously injured. Hrant was subsequently convicted of the shootings.
                   In this lawsuit, Michael Carver sought to establish the liability of John Meguerian and two
                   companies he controlled, Balboa Luxury Condominiums, Inc. and Vanalden, Inc., for his injuries
                   on theories that they were landlords of the property where the shooting took place and failed to
                   exercise reasonable care to prevent the shooting. He also sought damages for alleged conversion
                   of his personal property, both before and after the shooting, and for denying him access to the
                   house after the shooting. The latter claim was premised on Civil Code Section 789.3, which
                   provides that a “landlord shall not, with intent to terminate the occupancy under any lease or
                   other tenancy or estate at will, however created, of property used by a tenant as his residence,
                   willfully (I) prevent the tenant from gaining reasonable access to the property by changing the
                   locks. . . .”                                                              I
                          The court bifurcated the issues of liability and damages. After an eight day trial on the
                   liability phase the jury returned a verdict as follows: Vanalden, Inc., (but not John or Lucine
                   Meguerian,) was found liable for negligence; John Meguerian and Vanalden, Inc. were found
                   liable for trespass, Vanalden, Inc. and Balboa Luxury Condominium were found liable for
                   conversion, and Vanalden, Inc. was found to have prevented plaintiffs access to the property, in
                   violation of Civil Code Section 789.3. The jury also found that plaintiff had established that
                   John Meguerian and Vanalden, Inc. and Balboa Luxury Condominiums had engaged in conduct
                   with malice, fraud or oppression. Plaintiff did not establish any claims against Lucine
                   Meguerian. After the second phase of the trial, at which evidence was presented of plaintiffs
                   damages and the defendants’ nancial worth for purposes of punitive damages, the jury returned
                    a special verdict on August 19, 2019 in plaintiffs favor as follows. On the negligence claim, the                          V
g:: : ;:           jury found plaintiff to have been 70% at fault; the jury awarded $520,000 in past economic loss;
:3-_!              $700,000 in future economic damages, and $800,000 in past and future noneconomic loss. The

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