LOS ANGELES (CN) — They are two of the biggest eviction firms in Southern California, and they are frequently at odds: Dennis P. Block and Associates, champion of landlords, and BASTA, an eviction defense nonprofit with five offices that takes an especially aggressive stance, often demanding jury trials for unlawful detainer cases.
Its founder and head, Danny Bramzon, is known out for his brash persona. In speaking to this reporter, then writing for LA Weekly in 2014, Bramzon said: "I'm fucking Robin Hood!” Block is no less boastful, having claimed, among other things, that he had "evicted more tenants than any other human being on the planet Earth," according to the Los Angeles Times.
Attorneys often behave with a certain geniality toward another, a professional respect. Not so with eviction attorneys, whose opposing sides — landlord and tenant — are separated by an ideological gulf. Still, Bramzon and Block's relationship stands out for its acrimony. Until recently, they had never met, though they had been quoted in stories about each other. Of Block, Bramzon said, according to the Times, "He keeps the system working by kicking out poor Mexicans,” adding, “He’s scared of me.” Of Bramzon, Block had told this reporter: “It's just such a crock. It's a matter of trying to move money out of the landlords' pockets to the law firm's pockets.”
Now, the two foes are spending their days together in a Pasadena courtroom. A libel lawsuit filed by Block in 2017, centered around a parody Twitter account set up by a BASTA contractor, has improbably made its way to a jury trial, with Block asking for a judgment of more than a million dollars. Bramzon said that if Block wins, BASTA could be out of business.
"We’d have to close shop," confirms BASTA's director of operations, Jeanette Alvarez-Webster. "And tenants — we’re their main source of representation in the LA area."
Block, who declined to be interviewed for this story, sued BASTA, Bramzon and the contractor, Brett Schulte, for invasion of privacy and libel. According to the complaint, Schulte set up the Twitter account @DennisPBlock, which used to go by the heading, “Very Stable Genius Not Dennis P. Block,” but is now simply titled, "Not Dennis Block." The account has posted photos of Block's family and, according to the complaint, disclosed "Block’s personal and private address and telephone number to the public, inviting the public to harass Block and causing him to fear for his personal safety and the safety of his family and others."
The tweets, according to the complaint, portray Block as a "greedy thief and criminal, who overcharges and steals from his clients and others," as well as a "racist, sexist and misogynist." One tweet, cited as an example of the latter, from September 2017 read, "My associates are all either obese, disciplined by the bar, or cheap 'people of color' working against their own kind. Oh, or my idiot sons."
The suit also charged BASTA, Bramzon and Schulte with buying the URL www.dennisblock.com, which initially redirected people to BASTA's website, although it now sends users to the Dennis P. Block and Associates Yelp page.
The three defendants filed anti-SLAPP motions to dismiss the suit in 2018, arguing that the parody Twitter account was "intended to serve as a warning to consumers about [Block's] trustworthiness." An LA County judge found that while the speech being sued over was in fact a matter of public interest ("a consumer watchdog type of situation," the judge wrote) the plaintiffs — Block, his firm, and three of his employees — were likely to prevail at trial and denied the motion.
A Second Appellate District panel in 2021 went one step further, upholding the ruling but finding that the speech wasn't, in fact, protected, since Block was not a celebrity and the tweets were only tangentially related to any sort of public debate.
"A majority of the statements consist of vulgar and/or adolescent personal insults, misogynistic, racist, and xenophobic comments, and other slurs having nothing to do with any reasoned discussion of trustworthiness, competence, or any other 'public issue or an issue of public interest,'" the three-judge panel wrote. They added: "The case raises the issue whether the alleged participation of Bramzon... in the challenged tweets and other alleged conduct constitutes professional incivility, including expressions of gender bias and misogyny," suggesting Bramzon could face discipline from the State Bar of California if he's found guilty at trial.
Schulte, the contractor hired by Bramzon as a sort of tech-related project manager, has stopped coming to court and is in default.
Bramzon and BASTA's defense rests on two fronts. Firstly, they're arguing that it was Schulte who put created and maintained the Dennis Block parody account, and who bought the dennisblock.com domain name, albeit in Bramzon's name and with BASTA's credit card. The plaintiffs, meanwhile, have sought to show that Schulte was at very least a de facto BASTA employee.
BASTA's lawyers are also arguing that the conduct should be protected under the First Amendment and case law which protects parody.
"Our approach is that while you can’t account for taste, you can account for context," said Bramzon's attorney Makoa Kawabata. "Whether someone finds tweets offensive, funny, appropriate, it’s our position that when looking at a Twitter account that’s labeled 'Not Dennis Block,' a reader can recognize that this is all just the product of the negative opinions that its author had of Dennis."
Bramzon himself took the stand on Wednesday and Thursday, called by the plaintiffs as a hostile witness. On Thursday, he acknowledged some of his attorneys refer to Block's lawyers as "Blockheads," and some call co-plaintiff Hasti Rahsepar "Nasty Hasti." He also said that his firm had, at one time, commissioned a piñata in the likeness of Dennis Block.
"Have you ever focused this much attention on any lawyer other than Dennis Block?" Block's attorney Christopher Frost asked Bramzon.
"No," Bramzon replied.
As BASTA attorney Eric D. Anderson said during a break, "There is a lot of animosity in this case."
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