Kingstown Mobile Home Park v. Strashnick, 774 A.2d 847 (2001)

Citation: Kingstown Mobile Home Park v. Strashnick, 774 A.2d 847 (2001)
Parent Document: Kingstown Mobile Home Park v. Strashnick, 774 A.2d 847 (2001)
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island (state)
Effective Date: 2001-06-26
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1515698/kingstown-mobile-home-park-v-st... ↗

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I note also that, pursuant to § 31-44-5(b), park owners and operators are forbidden from taking reprisals against their resident tenants for having engaged in "any protected lawful action." Moreover, "[a]n increase in rent, nonrenewal of lease, refusal to offer a lease, or termination of tenancy, taken by a [landlord] against a resident * * * within six (6) months after the resident * * * has taken any protected lawful action, creates a rebuttable presumption that the act by the [landlord] is a reprisal." Id. (Emphasis added.) And a "[r]eprisal may be pleaded as a defense in any court proceeding brought against a resident or prospective resident after he or she has taken any protected lawful action." Id. But if an owner of a mobile-home park could not terminate a periodic tenancy or refuse to renew a lease except for one of the six "limitations" set forth in § 31-44-2(a), then the above-referenced provisions in § 31-44-5(b) prohibiting "nonrenewal of lease" and "termination of tenancy" as a reprisalfor a tenant taking any protected lawful action would appear to be unnecessary. If the majority's interpretation were correct, then the owner could not terminate or fail to renew such an expired or holdover tenancy in any event  irrespective of whether the termination constituted a reprisal  unless the grounds for doing so fell within one of the "limitations" set forth in § 31-44-2(a).

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