Vlada Neal v. Prime Residential, et al.

Oregon Revised Statutes § 105.146(5) commands that, upon a landlord’s filing of a declaration of noncompliance with a court-approved stipulated retention order, the court “shall enter a judgment of restitution” awarding the landlord immediate possession of the tenant’s home. The hearing at which Oregon permits the tenant to litigate her statutory defenses to enforcement — including compliance, modification, lack of good faith, and unconscionability — is available only after the possessory judgment has entered. Or. Rev. Stat. §§ 105.146(5)-(6), 105.148, 105.149. The state court that affirmed the judgment expressly acknowledged that the statutory procedure affords a tenant “no opportunity to object prior to entry of judgment. ” App. 7a n. 1. The question presented is: Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permits a State to enter a final judgment awarding immediate possession of a residential tenant’s home upon a private adversary’s ex parte declaration of noncompliance, without adjudicating a timely written objection and hearing request the tenant filed before the judgment was entered.