Senior at DeAnza Springs Resort reaches settlement in eviction case

By Miriam Raftery and Karen Pearlman

Top photo from DeAnza Springs Resort website

(Jacumba Hot Springs) — Edwin Kuprienko, the 72-year-old resident of DeAnza Springs Resort who feared he would have to live in his car, has reached a settlement in the unlawful-detainer case that had been set for trial Aug. 17 in San Diego Superior Court.

Under the agreement, Kuprienko will receive $15,000 and may remain in his travel-trailer home at DeAnza Springs until Oct. 16. No lockout by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department can occur before Oct. 17, Kuprienko said, giving him about two months to arrange his move without a threat of eviction.

Kuprienko said the settlement does not resolve or affect his separate civil lawsuit against Jacumba Partners LLC, which does business as DeAnza Springs Resort.

That suit alleges retaliatory eviction, elder abuse and neglect, breach of implied warranty and negligence stemming from what Kuprienko says were years of unaddressed safety hazards, including a missing furnace, a rodent infestation and an unanchored structural support system beneath his trailer.

“The agreement does not settle or interfere with my separate civil lawsuit concerning the condition of the RV, habitability, retaliation, personal injury, and the other issues I have raised,” Kuprienko said. “Those claims and the evidence supporting them remain preserved, and the monetary issues between us remain for the civil case.”

If Kuprienko (photo, below right) vacates the unit on schedule, the resort has agreed to ask the court to set aside the eviction judgment and dismiss the unlawful-detainer case.

The case will also remain masked from public record as long as Kuprienko complies with the settlement terms, and the resort agreed to provide him with a neutral rental reference.

Kuprienko said the negotiations were difficult, and at several points it appeared the dispute would proceed to a jury trial.

“In the end, I decided this resolution gives me something very valuable: time, some financial breathing room, protection of my rental record, and freedom to continue the much larger civil case,” he said.

The settlement resolves only the eviction proceeding.

As previously reported by ECM, Kuprienko’s civil case — which also raises questions about whether the resort’s stated “no-fault,” bona-fide withdrawal from the rental market was pretextual — continues separately, with a hearing not scheduled until December and a motion to compel discovery pushed to April 2027.

“For the first time in quite a while, I can start thinking about what comes after DeAnza instead of spending every waking hour preparing for an eviction trial,” Kuprienko said.

Management from DeAnza Springs Resort and attorneys representing it did not respond to East County Magazine’s earlier requests for comment.

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