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Sweet v. Roy4/26/2002
nt or temporary basis in a mobile home park." Id. § 6201(6). We can find no support for defendants' position in this definition. The definition turns on the fact of occupancy rather than its legality. Even if plaintiff were unlawfully occupying her mobile home and lot, an issue that was hotly disputed between the parties, there is nothing in the words of the definition to suggest that she did not have the protection of the Act. Indeed, the broad coverage of temporary and permanent occupancies suggests that the occupant need not have a particular status to be a resident for purposes of the Act. Normally, we must apply a statute in accordance with the plain meaning of its language. See McMurphy v. State, 171 Vt. 9, 12, 757 A.2d 1043, 1046 (2000).
As plaintiff argues, the Legislature had a model to accomplish exactly and explicitly what defendants attempt to infer from the language of the Act. The Legislature defined a "tenant" under the Residential Rental Agreements Act, 9 V.S.A. § 4451-4469, as "a person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a residential dwelling unit," id. § 4451(9), and then worded the comparable provisions prohibiting self-help evictions as flowing to the "tenant," id. § 4463(a). Other states have defined mobile home park "resident" similar to the Vermont definition of "tenant," specifically providing that the resident must be present under a rental agreement. See N.M. Stat. Ann. § 47-10-2(H) (1978) (1995 Repl.) (resident is a person present "under a rental agreement"); 68 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 398.2 (1994) (resident is a person who "leases or rents space" in a mobile home park). The comparison of the Vermont language with these alternatives reinforces the inference that the Legislature did not require that a mobile home park resident have a lease with the park owner in order to be protected by the Act.
Finally, under the circumstances of this case, the policy considerations favor plaintiff's position. Defendants argue that the Legislature intended that persons in plaintiff's position have no rights so it is permissible for the park owner to cut off heat and power without warning, or break every window in the home, as a means to evict the tenant. This extreme position ignores the state's interest in the peaceful resolution of legal disputes without force or violence. We conclude that one of the purposes of a broad definition of "resident" was to ensure that disputes between mobile home park owners and occupants of homes would not be resolved by the methods defendants employed here.
B.
The second argument relates to the trust. The trust argues that it can not be held liable because plaintiff failed to cover the trust in its complaint.
Plaintiff's complaint and amended complaint named as defendants Marcien, Mary Anne and Leon Roy. Defendants answered and raised counterclaims by Marcien Roy, acting as trustee on behalf of the trust. This was apparently the first notice that the park was owned by the trust, rather than by Marcien and Mary Anne Roy. Plaintiff responded by making a motion to amend the complaint to add the trust as a defendant. She attached to the motion, as the proposed amended complaint, a new first page which changed the caption to add the trust as a defendant and changed paragraph three in the complaint to state "Defendants Marcien Roy and Mary Anne Roy are trustees of the Marcien and Mary Anne Roy Trust, which owns the Royal Pine Villa Mobile Home Park." Apparently, she requested the single page amendment because the prayers for relief were generally stated as against "defendants" without differentiating among them. The court allowed the amendment by an order dated April 6, 1998. Plaintiff filed no further document
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