May the SOB choke on the 1.2 Million
Marie Hatch, the 97-year-old Burlingame woman whose fight against being evicted from her home of 66 years drew international attention, died Thursday evening.
Ms. Hatch apparently died of natural causes after suffering from a severe cold for more than a week, family friends said. She had been hospitalized and Thursday evening returned home, where she succumbed.
"It's so sad -- we will miss Marie," said Cheryl Graczewski, who lived next door and had been advocating for Ms. Hatch since she first received word in December from her landlord that she had to vacate the house.
"She was a real sweetheart. There was a lot of spirit in that woman."
Joe Cotchett, the powerhouse lawyer who -- after The Chronicle broke the story last month -- took up Ms. Hatch's fight with a lawsuit, said her case was "the tip of the iceberg as to how senior citizens are being treated in the Bay Area in terms of being put out on the sidewalk."
His law partner, Nanci Nishimura, was at the Hatch home comforting her relatives and her longtime roommate, 85-year-old Georgia Rothrock. "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 said.
"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," Nishimura said.
In response to Ms. Hatch's plight, hundreds of people from as far away as New Zealand and all over the United States mailed in money and offers to either have the woman live with them or to buy the house and let her stay in it.
Cotchett's firm filed suit in San Mateo County Superior Court on Feb. 26 arguing that Ms. Hatch had been promised lifetime tenancy in the home by three generations of women who owned the house. The suit contends elder abuse and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Kantz and his lawyer did not return calls Thursday evening.
Cotchett said he will continue to wage a legal fight on behalf of the Hatch family, and on behalf of Rothrock so she can continue to live in the house.
Ms. Hatch, who was fighting cancer and had difficulty leaving her home because she was prone to agoraphobia, told The Chronicle that when she moved into the house in 1950 her landlord said she could live there for life. That landlord, Vivian Kroeze, died, and her daughter and granddaughter successively carried on the promise, Ms. Hatch and Cotchett contended in the lawsuit.
"This seems so unfair," Ms. Hatch told The Chronicle. "Why should I have to leave my home because this young man wants to make all this money?"
It was only in 2006, when Kroeze's granddaughter was killed by a boyfriend while she was getting a divorce, that the promise fell into doubt, Ms. Hatch contended. Kantz, the granddaughter's widower, said his wife's trust was expiring later this year and that he had to settle finances on the house for the sake of his two sons.
"I feel bad for the elderly lady, I feel bad for my sons, I feel bad for me," Kantz told The Chronicle. The house, long paid off, was listed on the Zillow real estate site at $1.2 million.
Graczewski, who moved this past week from her home -- Kantz, who owned that house, had also served her with a notice to vacate -- said the big question now is what will happen with 85-year-old Rothrock. She set up an appointment with social workers Monday with the roommate in hopes of planning for her future
