A10 THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019 LATIMES.COM
LEGAL NOTICE
Notice of the Pendency and Settlement of Class Action
IF YOU OWN AN APARTMENT BUILDING OR OTHER MULTI-UNIT RESIDENTIAL RENTAL PROPERTY IN CALIFORNIA
WHERE DIRECTV OR ITS AGENTS HAVE INSTALLED EQUIPMENT IN COMMON OR RESTRICTED AREAS, A CLASS ACTION
SETTLEMENT MAY AFFECT YOUR RIGHTS.
A proposed settlement (the “Settlement”) has been reached in a class action lawsuit entitledLBM Properties, LLC, et al., v. DIRECTV, et al.,
Los Angeles County (California) Superior Court, Case No. BC-540043 (the “Action”).
ARE YOU AFFECTED?
Your rights may be affected if you fall within the following Class:
All persons or entities (“Landlords”) that own and rent or lease residential multi-dwelling unit properties (“MDUs”) in the State
of California upon or in common or restricted areas of which Defendant DIRECTV, LLC, or its agents have permanently installed
DIRECTV Equipment.
WHAT IS THIS CASE ABOUT?
The lawsuit alleges that Defendant DIRECTV, LLC (“DIRECTV”) has a policy of installing satellite dishes and other equipment on or in
common or restricted areas of California residential rental MDU properties, such as rooftops and exterior walls, based solely on a tenant’s
representation that such installation is authorized, or that authorization from the property owner is unnecessary, and does not seek or obtain such
authorization directly from the property owner or his, her or its agent (“the Landlord”). The lawsuit claims that this policy is an unfair business
practice that violates the Unfair Competition Law, Business & Professions Code §§ 17200et seq. (the “UCL”).
WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE?
The settlement changes DIRECTV’s policy. It requires DIRECTV to secure permission directly from the Landlord before installing
its equipment in common or restricted areas of California residential rental MDU properties; to keep records showing its receipt of such
permission; and to make those records available, upon reasonable request, to persons who assert that they are the owners or managers of affected
property. The settlement is for an injunction only. The court earlier ruled that claims for monetary damages could not proceed in this case on
behalf of the class. Class members will keep their right to pursue claims against DIRECTV for damages.
Plaintiffs will request the Court to award their counsel fees and expenses in an amount not exceeding $2,900,000.00, and incentive awards to
each Plaintiff in the amount of $5,000.00; and DIRECTV agrees not to oppose an application for awards in such amounts.
DO I HAVE A LAWYER IN THE CLASS ACTION?
The Court has appointed Alan Plutzik, of Bramson, Plutzik, Mahler & Birkhaeuser, LLP, Walnut Creek, California, and Mark Kindall of Izard,
Kindall & Raabe, LLP, West Hartford, Connecticut, as Class Counsel to represent the Class.
WHEN WILL THE COURT DECIDE WHETHER TO APPROVE THE SETTLEMENT?
The Court will determine whether to approve the settlement at a fairness hearing (the “Fairness Hearing”), to be held on October 22, 2019, at 10:
a.m. in the Courtroom of the Hon. Kenneth Freeman, LosAngeles County (California) Superior Court, 312 N. Spring Street, LosAngeles, CA 90012.
WHAT ELSE WILL BE DECIDED AT THE FAIRNESS HEARING?
At the Fairness Hearing, the Court will also determine the Plaintiffs’ request for incentive awards in the amount of $5,000.00 each, and
Plaintiffs’ request for an award of attorneys’ fees and expenses in the amount of not more than $2,900,000.00, to be paid by DIRECTV (and
not by any Class members).
WHAT ARE MY LEGAL RIGHTS?
You have three options:
DO NOTHING: REMAIN IN THE CLASS. ACCEPT THE SETTLEMENT. If you are a class member and you do not take action to exclude
yourself from the class, you will be a class member, will be bound by the terms of the settlement, and will not be able to bring, or continue, a
separate lawsuit against DIRECTV for an injunction based on the same legal claims that are the subject of this lawsuit.You will, however, retain
the right to sue DIRECTV for damages caused by the installation of its equipment on your property.
ASK TO BE EXCLUDED: NOT BE PART OF ANY JUDGMENT OR SETTLEMENT. KEEP YOUR RIGHT TO SUE SEPARATELY FOR
AN INJUNCTION. If you wish to be excluded, you must send a letter, postmarked by September 30, 2019, addressed toLBM Properties, et al.,
v. DIRECTV, P.O. Box 404041, Louisville, KY 40233-4041, stating that you want to be excluded from the Class. Be sure to include your name,
contact information, and address of your rental property, and remember to sign and date the letter. DIRECTV will be changing its policy for all
California residential rental MDU property owners, so by excluding yourself you will not necessarily lose all of the benefits of the settlement.
But if you exclude yourself, you will be able to sue on your own behalf for an additional injunction based on the same claim.
OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENT, THE INCENTIVE AWARDS AND/OR CLASS COUNSEL’S APPLICATION FOR AN AWARD OF
ATTORNEYS’ FEES AND EXPENSES, either by yourself or through an attorney that you hire at your own expense, if you do not exclude
yourself from the Class. Objections may be submitted in writing and mailed toLBM Properties, et al., v. DIRECTV, P.O. Box 404041,
Louisville, KY 40233-4041, postmarked on or before September 30, 2019, setting forth your written statement of the specific objections, the
grounds for your objections, and documentary evidence identifying yourself as a Class Member. The Court will also hear any Class Member
who appears at the Fairness Hearing and requests to have his or her objection heard by the Court, regardless of whether that Class Member
has objected in writing.
HOW CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION?
For more information, go to http://www.DirecTVMDUSettlement.com. You may also contact one of the Class Counsel listed above.
Please do not contact the Court or DIRECTV regarding this Notice or the lawsuit itself.
By Order of the Hon. Kenneth Freeman, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles
QUESTIONS? GO TO WWW.DIRECTVMDUSETTLEMENT.COMwas meant to be a poke in
the eye to the Golden State
— the heart of the liberal “re-
sistance” against a presi-
dent voters in Needles over-
whelmingly supported in
2016 and likely will again in
- This conservative
small town is part of Califor-
nia but also quite apart from
it. Those big-city politicians
making laws in Sacramento,
many people here are con-
vinced, don’t give one damn
about a place like Needles.
In the coming months,
city officials hope to some-
how cajole the state to allow
Needles and possibly other
border towns to be exempt
from rules on purchasing
ammunition, which would
allow people here to buy
ammo from out of state, and
honor concealed carry per-
mits for people who have ob-
tained them outside Califor-
nia.
“For so long we’ve had to
deal with the laws as they
are,” said Mayor Jeff
Williams. “It was time to
stand up and say, ‘Enough.’ ”
What Needles wants
would seem a tough ask in a
state with widespread sup-
port for gun control — and
never more so than after
now-familiar mass shoot-
ings, like the one in the
Northern California town of
Gilroy on Sunday. A gun-
man at the Gilroy Garlic Fes-
tival killed three people — in-
cluding a 6-year-old boy and
a 13-year-old girl — before
being shot dead. A dozen
other people were injured,
including some who are
fighting for their lives.
On Monday, California
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra
said the investigation into
the shooting may determine
that the shooter in Gilroy
broke a California law by
purchasing the weapon in
Nevada and bringing it into
California.
“That weapon could not
be sold in California. That
weapon cannot be imported
into the state of California,”
he said. “There is a very
strong likelihood, as we de-
velop the evidence, that the
perpetrator in this particu-
lar case violated California
law, on top of the crimes of
homicide.”
But for officials in Nee-
dles, taking such a pro-gun
stance offers a means to save
a sporadically struggling
town.
“We do feel neglected,”
said Rick Daniels, the town’s
city manager: “It’s easy to
craft laws with your personal
framework in mind, and I
don’t think there’s enough
consideration about how
those decisions affect small
rural towns.”
Across the Colorado
River in Arizona, towns are
friendlier to businesses and
boast lower taxes and looser
regulations on many con-
sumer items, including fire-
arms, Needles officials ar-gue. This puts the California
town at a severe economic
disadvantage, Williams said.
From its rail depot ori-
gins dating to 1883 to its
place on historic Route 66,
Needles — nicknamed “the
Gateway to California” —
has long been a stop for trav-
elers on their journey some-
where else.
The fictional Joad family
in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes
of Wrath” made Needles
their first stop in California.
In the 1940 film adaptation of
the novel, Oklahomans
gazed at the town just over
the glistening Colorado
River, dubbing it “the land of
milk and honey.”
For a time it was, localssay.
Needles was the first
place crews swapped out
freight trains headed east
out of Los Angeles — a big
boon for the town at the
time. But over the years the
railroad cut the number of
train workers and those jobs
vanished.
The completion of Inter-
state 40 in the early 1970s
also meant travelers were no
longer traversing Route 66.
They no longer stopped in
Needles and shopped at
businesses there like they
had in the past. People
nevertheless counted it a
blessing when the town
snagged three exits off I-40.
The Great Recession hit,
and Needles struggled to re-
cover in a way that feels par-
ticular for small towns.
“L.A. is just going to sur-
vive. They have too many
people not to survive,” Ter-
ral said. “Small towns don’t
rebound as quickly.”
Needles’ only grocery
store shuttered in 2014. It
was replaced by a 99 Cents
Only store. Last year that
too closed its doors. The
two-story movie theater,
which opened in 1930 to
some of the first talkies, has
been empty for decades.
A handful of businesses
still dot old Route 66 as it
winds through the dusty
downtown past a shuttered
burger joint and motels
turned vacant lots.
Weathered Craftsman
homes with broken windows
— still dressed with tattered
curtains or boarded up —sit
empty. At least one has been
red-tagged for more than a
year.
Roughly a quarter of resi-
dents live below the poverty
line, and as jobs and re-
sources left, so did many
people.
“You’re not going to stay
somewhere you can’t sur-
vive,” Terral said.
When cannabis began to
emerge as a booming busi-
ness in the state several
years ago, Needles seized the
opportunity. Marijuana has
been a lifeline for the town.
The city has approved 82
permits for cannabis busi-
nesses since 2015. In 2016,
Needles voters largely sup-
ported a state ballot mea-
sure that legalized the recre-
ational use of cannabis. The
weed industry in Needles
has grown exponentially
since then.
The city’s 10% cannabis
tax, approved by a wide mar-
gin of voters in 2012 when
marijuana was legal only for
medicinal use, added nearly
$1.2 million to city coffers lastyear. That money, officials
say, has been pivotal in fund-
ing improvement projects.
At the Wagon Wheel, the
city’s oldest restaurant, a
souvenir shop displays li-
cense plates with the city’s
unofficial nickname —
Weedles — and glasses
adorned with marijuana
leaves and pot puns. A drink-
ing glass emblazoned with
the state flag and a marijua-
na leaf reads “Needles, CA.
Watch us grow.”
Vertical Cos., a large
cannabis producer head-
quartered in Agoura Hills,
has purchased dozens of
acres in Needles over the last
two years. It was drawn to
the town not only for its
openness to the industry,
but also its cheap electricity
and proximity to the Col-
orado River, a necessary wa-
ter supply.
“For so long there was
really no economy to speak
of in Needles. Now with can-
nabis there’s houses being
built, there’s people coming
to this area, there’s moves
being made,” said Christo-
pher Brooks, a lead cultiva-
tion specialist at Vertical
Cos.
The company has al-
ready built a large campus
on the edge of town and has
plans to turn an old Ken-
tucky Fried Chicken on
Route 66 into a kitchen for
cannabis-infused candies
and baked goods.
The thinking behind the
loosening gun laws isn’t
much different from town of-
ficials’ view on cannabis.
They contend that exempt-
ing Needles from certain gun
laws might encourage resi-
dents in Arizona and Ne-
vada to visit the town and
spend money.
Another contention is
that it’s illegal for Califor-
nians to purchase ammuni-
tion in other states. The
closest in-state gun shops to
Needles are 100 miles to the
south in Blythe or more than
140 miles away in Barstow.
“It’s just ludicrous to
have to go that far to buy a
bullet,” Williams said.
California also does not
recognize concealed carry
permits issued outside the
state, so residents from Ari-
zona and Nevada have to
disarm before they cross the
state line.
Terral said in June that
he tried to host a barbecue
and invited a friend who lives
just a few miles away in
open-carry Arizona. Terral
said the man told him he
wouldn’t show up because
he didn’t want to take off his
gun.The councilman invoked
an analogy that would seem
irrational to many in a state
where support for gun con-
trol is strong.
“It sounds silly that they
don’t want to take their
gun off, but you know what,
if Arizona had a law saying
that I’m not allowed to
wear shoes it would be the
same thing,” Terral said.
“I don’t want to take my
shoes off when I cross the
border.”
Needles officials have
reached out to other small
cities in California to
see if they’d be willing to en-
act similar pro-gun resolu-
tions.
In Tehachapi, a city of
more than 12,000 nestled be-
tween the San Joaquin Val-
ley and the Mojave Desert in
Kern County, city officials
last week directed staff to
study the feasibility of a sim-
ilar move.
“We have big cities
around our state that are
continuing to dictate to the
rest of our smaller cities
what they feel we should do,”
said Tehachapi Councilman
Kenneth Hetge. “If you’re a
law-abiding citizen and your
rights are being chipped
away at, we need to speak up
... and get some accountabil-
ity out of Sacramento.”
Convincing other small,
largely conservative towns
to follow the Needles exam-
ple is one thing. But convinc-
ing lawmakers in a state
leading the fight against
President Trump and an ad-
ministration that likewise
seems at war with California
is another.
Assemblyman Jay Ober-
nolte (R-Big Bear Lake)
plans to introduce legisla-
tion in December that would
allow individual cities in Cal-
ifornia to choose whether
they want to acknowledge
out-of-state concealed carry
permits. He’s not sure
whether the legislation will
address out-of-state ammu-
nition sales, which involves a
more complex legal issue, he
said.
“This is what we call in
the Legislature a heavy lift,”
Obernolte said. “It’s going to
take some convincing. Typi-
cally, what’s more likely to
pass is more restriction
rather than something that
allows local control.”
Terral acknowledges the
slim odds. But he’s deter-
mined to try.
This isn’t just about
sticking it to liberals. This
about keeping Needles alive,
he said.
“If you’re not growing,”
Terral said, “you’re dying.ACROSSthe Colorado River, Arizona towns have looser regulations on firearms, which helps put Needles at an economic disadvantage, the city’s mayor says.
Photographs by Irfan KhanLos Angeles TimesNEEDLESonce was a popular stop for Route 66 trav-
elers, but completion of I-40 reversed the trend.COUNCILMANTim Terral, shown with wife Holly, believes that exempting Nee-
dles from certain gun laws may help encourage people to visit — and spend money.THE TOWN’S economy has seen a boost from
marijuana cultivation and manufacturing.‘Sanctuary city’ for 2nd Amendment
[Needles,from A1]