11
Segura v. Cabrera, No. 90088-4
(Gordon McCloud, J., Concurring in Result)
No. 90088-4
GORDON McCLOUD, J. (concurring in result)-The Residential Landlord-
Tenant Act of 1973 (RLTA), chapter 59.18 RCW, entitles displaced tenants to
recover, "[i]n addition to" "any relocation assistance," "any actual damages
sustained by them . . . that exceed the amount of relocation assistance that is
payable." RCW 59.18.085(3)(b), (e). The majority holds that the plain language
and stated purpose of this statute compel limiting a displaced tenant's recovery to
financial losses only. 1 Majority at 10.
But the legislature's use of the broad, inclusive adjective "any" to modify
"actual damages," along with its specification that such damages are recoverable "in
addition" to relocation costs, compels the opposite conclusion. In addition, we
presume that the legislature, when it enacted the RLT A, was aware of our decisions
in Rasor v. Retail Credit Co., 87 Wn.2d 516,529,554 P.2d 1041 (1976), and Martini
1
Emotional distress damages are a type of noneconomic damages. RCW
4.56.250(l)(b) defines "noneconomic damages" as "subjective, nonmonetary losses,
including, but not limited to pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, disability or
disfigurement incurred by the injured party, emotional distress, loss of society and
companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation and humiliation, and destruction
of the parent-child relationship."
1
Segura v. Cabrera, No. 90088-4
(Gordon McCloud, J., Concurring in Result)
v. Boeing Co., 137 Wn.2d 357,368,370,971 P.2d 45 (1999), recognizing that actual