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--> --> Landlord settles out of court with battered tenant PORTLAND (AP) - The landlord of a woman evicted because she was a victim of domestic violence settled out of court Friday in a case that may have implications for landlord-tenant law nationwide, a lawyer in the case said. The woman, Tiffani Alvera, was thrown out of her government-subsidized apartment in Seaside in 1999 because she was in a fight with her husband even though she was the victim. The case may influence landlord "zero-tolerance" policies nationwide. These are policies that give landlords the right to evict tenants if there are any signs of violence on their rental properties. "This puts all landlords on notice that if you try to evict women because they are victims of domestic violence, they will face the consequences," said Geoff Boehm, a staff attorney with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. He said his women rights group is looking into similar cases in Colorado, New York, North Carolina and Illinois. Alvera's landlord, CBM Group Inc. of Auburn, Calif., agreed in court papers filed Friday in Federal District Court in Oregon to pay an undisclosed sum to Alvera, Boehm said. The company also agreed not to evict tenants because they are victims of domestic violence at any of the company's about 100 properties in five states, he said. The government, NOW Legal Defense, the ACLU and two other legal organizations filed the lawsuit July 10 on behalf of Alvera. "It will no longer force the victim into the dangerous position of keeping quiet or reporting the violence and risking eviction," Boehm said. Alvera said her husband beat her up at their apartment at the Creekside Village Apartments in Seaside, leaving her with a concussion and a fractured cheekbone. Her husband left after the fight, she said. She said management then served her with a 24-hour eviction notice. "I was scared because I had nowhere else to go," Alvera said in an interview last summer from her new home in North Carolina. She asked that her precise whereabouts not be disclosed because she is hiding from her former husband, whom she has since divorced. CBM Group, which owns Creekside Village Apartments, could not be reached for comment late Friday. The group had maintained that the no-violence policy falls within Oregon law. Many of the apartments at the complex are subsidized under federal programs, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development was among the parties that sued. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing