Battle continues: Hatch's lawyers say they will continue the legal battle on behalf of the late woman's roommate Georgia Rothrock (above) The 97-year-old woman a California landlord was trying to evict from the home she has lived in for 66 years died on Thursday, and her lawyers say it was the stress of the legal battle that did her in.
Marie Hatch, 97, died Thursday at her rental home in Burlingame, California
The cancer sufferer and her partner of 36 years Georgia Rothrock, 85, were recently served with eviction papers
Moved into the home 66 years ago and was given permission by her original landlord to stay there as long as she wanted
The estranged husband of the landlord's granddaughter recently came into possession of home, wanted the women to leave so he could sell
The two women pay a combined $900 in rent each month ...however, Zillow lists the home's estimated value at $1.2million, estimated monthly rent $3,200
Attorneys will continue the legal battle on behalf of the late woman's roommate
Marie Hatch, who was also battling cancer, passed away late Thursday, just a week after her attorneys filed a lawsuit to fight her eviction notice.
The cancer sufferer and her partner of 36 years Georgia Rothrock, 85, were recently served with eviction papers
Moved into the home 66 years ago and was given permission by her original landlord to stay there as long as she wanted
The estranged husband of the landlord's granddaughter recently came into possession of home, wanted the women to leave so he could sell
The two women pay a combined $900 in rent each month ...however, Zillow lists the home's estimated value at $1.2million, estimated monthly rent $3,200
Attorneys will continue the legal battle on behalf of the late woman's roommate
Marie Hatch, who was also battling cancer, passed away late Thursday, just a week after her attorneys filed a lawsuit to fight her eviction notice.
'There is no doubt that the callous eviction of Marie Hatch has caused her death,' her attorneys Nanci Nishimura and Nancy Fineman said in a statement. 'The legal battle will continue on behalf of her live-in partner of 36 years Georgia Rothrock, the Hatch family everyone who knew and loved her. Sadly evictions of our senior citizens are epidemic and must be addressed by our society immediately.'
Nishmura and Fineman - partners at the powerhouse law firm Cotchett, Pitre and McCarthy - are working on the case pro bono.
Verbal agreement: Hatch said the home's original owner promised she could live in the house for as long as she wanted
Nishimura was at the Hatch home on Thursday, comforting the woman's family and roommate.
Nishimura was at the Hatch home on Thursday, comforting the woman's family and roommate.
She told SF Gate: 'There is no doubt that her being served with a notice that she had to be out on the sidewalk brought about her death.'
She added: 'From December 2015 when she first learned that (landlord) David Kantz intended to sell the house and believed he had a right to evict her in 60 days, Marie Hatch mentally and physically deteriorated because she was so scared, upset and distraught.'
Former neighbor Cheryl Graczewski remembered Hatch as a 'real sweetheart'.
'It’s so sad - we will miss Marie,' she said.
Hatch first moved into the Burlingame, California house 66 years ago when her friend Vivian Kroeze needed a companion to assist her after the death of her husband.
Kroeze allegedly gave her a verbal promise that she could live in the home until she died - a promise that was guaranteed by Kroeze's daughter and then granddaughter.
But after Kroeze's granddaughter died in 2006, her husband took control of the home and now he is pushing to sell the property.
New landlord: But the husband of that woman's dead grand-daughter recently took ownership of the property and wanted to force her out
Hatch and her 85-year-old roommate Rothrock were served with eviction papers on February 11, giving them 60 days to vacate the property.
The new landlord says the home was bought by his wife's ancestors for just a few thousand dollars. The home's value on Zillow is now estimated at $1.2million or $3,200 in monthly rent. Hatch and Kroeze paid a combined $900 in rent each month.
When the story first made headlines, both single women said that they had no family they could live with and feared they would be left homeless since the neighborhood around then had grown exponentially pricier since they first moved there.
When she was asked where she'd go if kicked out of the cottage-style home, Hatch told CBS San Francisco: 'I haven’t the slightest idea. I don’t know where I’m going to go. What I’m going to do. I really don’t. Keeps me awake at night.'
Her roommate added: 'I’ll be out on the bus stop bench surrounded by my boxes of my beloved books. And that’s all I can foresee.
Photo: Adela Meadows
Passed: Marie Hatch, 97, died Thursday at her rental home in Burlingame, California. The cancer sufferer was in a legal battle with her landlord, who wanted to evict her so that he could sell the property
Photo: Adela Meadows
Passed: Marie Hatch, 97, died Thursday at her rental home in Burlingame, California. The cancer sufferer was in a legal battle with her landlord, who wanted to evict her so that he could sell the property
Cozy kitchen: Above, a view of the kitchen at the Burlingame apartment. For his part, the new landlord said he doesn't enjoy kicking out two elderly ladies
Signs of home: The new landlord said he need to sell the property for his sons before a trust expires this summer
For his part, new landlord David Kantz said he didn't take any pleasure with kicking two old ladies to the curb.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Kantz said he inadvertently inherited the property in 2006, when his wife was murdered by her new boyfriend while the couple were going through a divorce.
Now, he says he's duty bound to sell the property for his sons before the trust expires in July.
'I didn’t want to say, "We’re going to just throw you out," but I thought I would give her plenty of notice,' said Kantz, who added that he offered to help the two women move out. 'There is no one part of this whole thing I don’t feel bad about.'
'I feel bad for the elderly lady, I feel bad for my sons, I feel bad for me.'
Hatch said she felt no sympathy for Kantz, and calls his actions 'greedy'.
'He has no choice? Huh. I don’t believe that,' Hatch said.
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