COURT GETS PROPERTY RIGHTS CASE RENT-CONTROL LAW FOR TRAILERS EXAMINED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992                   TAG: 9201230108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
COURT GETS PROPERTY RIGHTS CASE RENT-CONTROL LAW FOR TRAILERS EXAMINED
The Supreme Court on Wednesday examined a California city's rent-control law for mobile homes in a potentially important test of property owners' rights and government regulatory power.
The justices, expected to rule in the case by July, energetically questioned lawyers on both sides.
Robert Jagiello, representing the owners of mobile home parks, said the city of Escondido, Calif., is violating the rights of his clients by letting tenants make big profits by selling their homes - or coaches - to new tenants.
The park owners are being denied the right to choose their tenants, while mobile home owners are reaping a windfall when they move out, he said.
Carter Phillips, a lawyer for Escondido, defended the city's rent control ordinance as a legitimate economic regulation designed to protect elderly tenants.
"The park owner has lost nothing. He's only lost the ability to charge rents above the fair market," Phillips said.
Without the law, he said, the tenants would be forced to give up their coaches at distressed-sale prices because it costs too much to move them. The homes generally have become stationary, placed on blocks in the parks.
The case has attracted widespread attention because it raises the possibility the justices could force regulators to compensate many property owners - or repeal regulations.
The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution requires governments to compensate owners when property is seized.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB