Lim

FACTS

Plaintiff alleged the following facts relevant to this appeal. Plaintiff and his sister acquired property in the city, a “four-plex,” in 2003. They converted it into a boarding house, but did not comply with the city’s building code. Plaintiff’s mother met defendant Chavis in December 2006. Chavis held herself out as a powerful employee of the Los Angeles Housing Department (hereafter housing department or LAHD) who could help plaintiff’s mother if she ever encountered problems in dealing with the housing department. In January 2007, plaintiff received a letter from the housing department saying the property was “not up to code due to code violations and that Plaintiff had made illegal, unpermitted modifications.” Plaintiff’s mother took the letter to Chavis and asked what plaintiff should do. Chavis said the violations needed to be fixed, and she could solve the problem if plaintiff “paid funds [to] EUN CHAVIS, who on behalf of the LAHD would collect the funds to correct the citations, pay for fines and penalties assessed against the Subject Property.” Chavis represented she would help plaintiff “resolve the housing code violations according [to] the applicable code.”…