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Sweet v. Roy4/26/2002
could find that they failed to show that plaintiff made a defamatory statement against Marcien or Mary Anne. They could also find that any statements made by plaintiff were true because the trust was responsible for the actions of Leon Roy. See Weisburgh v. Mahady, 147 Vt. 70, 73, 511 A.2d 304, 306 (1986) (statement is not actionable if "substantially accurate"). Finally, they could have found that neither Marcien nor Mary Anne proved any "actual harm." Wood v. Wood, 166 Vt. 608, 609, 693 A.2d 673, 674 (1997) (mem.).
B.
Finally, defendants argue that the court erred in dismissing their counterclaim for ejectment. The court's ruling on this issue is related to that affirmed above holding that plaintiff was entitled to the protection of the Act and could not be evicted by self-help means. In resolving the counterclaim, however, the court went further and ruled that defendants were obligated to allow plaintiff to apply to be a tenant and to consider her application based on the uniform admission standards applicable to any applicant. The court made this ruling in response to Leon Roy's testimony that he would not consider providing a lease to any person who bought a mobile home in the park without first going through the application process, and to defendants' legal position that anyone who did not apply for admission prior to buying a home in the park was a trespasser, not entitled to the protections of the Act.
We need not get as far into the construction of the Act as the superior court did. We have ruled above that plaintiff was a mobile home park resident, see 10 V.S.A. § 6201(6), and, as such, could not be evicted by self-help, see id. § 6237(a)(1). The same section of the Act which prohibits self-help eviction also requires that the park owner, " rior to the commencement of any eviction proceeding," notify the resident "by certified or registered mail" of the grounds for the eviction proceeding or that eviction may be commenced if the resident does not pay overdue rent within twenty days. Id. § 6237(2). Defendants never proved they sent such a notice. In fact, Leon Roy testified that he had never sent any written communication to plaintiff. In the absence of such notice, the court correctly ruled that defendants could not evict plaintiff by ejectment.
Affirmed.
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