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The Department of Real Estate adopted the administrative law judge’s decision. Nijjar and its broker filed a petition alleging that the administrative law judge wrongly ruled that Nijjar violated the Real Estate Law because the contracts were leases and not sales agreements and because the law did not ban an unlicensed person from accepting lease agreements on its behalf.
The trial court denied the petition. It decided that the administrative law judge did not consider any improper evidence and that Nijjar and its broker violated the applicable law. Nijjar and its broker appealed.
The California Court of Appeal for the Second District affirmed the administrative law judge’s decision. The appellate court determined that substantial evidence supported the trial court’s finding that Nijjar violated the Real Estate Law.
The appellate court ruled that Rodriguez’s employment agreement reflected that Nijjar paid him to act as the manager of Four J’s Trailer Park. Rodriguez admitted to an investigator for the Department of Housing and Community Development that Nijjar employed him as the park’s manager, that he did not have a license issued by the Department of Real Estate or by the Department of Housing and Community Development, and that Nijjar paid him a bonus for leasing the park’s mobile homes.
