Burlingame: Powerhouse law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy comes to aid of woman, 97, facing eviction
A powerhouse law firm will represent a 97-year-old cancer patient who is battling eviction from the Burlingame house where she has lived for 66 years.
Attorney Joe Cotchett, of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy, which has represented San Jose against Major League Baseball and the Surfrider Foundation in the Martins Beach public access fight, said two of his firm's attorneys, working pro bono, met Monday afternoon with Marie Hatch at her cottage-style home. A Feb. 11 eviction notice gave Hatch 60 days to be out of the place she has lived since 1950."That woman will not leave her house," Cotchett said in a statement.
Nancy Fineman and Nanci Nishimora will represent Hatch, who says she has no place to go and can't afford the soaring Bay Area rents, Cotchett said. Hatch and a roommate -- Georgia Rothrock, 85 -- pay about $900 per month for their small house. Hatch says her original landlord promised that she could live there all her life and successive family members kept that promise in place.
But Hatch now faces eviction, as does a couple living in the house next door. Landlord David Kantz reportedly inherited both properties from his late wife and is simply following the dictates of a family trust to provide for his sons. One of Cotchett's partners, Nancy Fineman, told Hatch she believes the situation qualifies under wrongful eviction law. She pledged to get the oral contract enforced... (To read the entire article, please click HERE)