“Landlord acknowledges that the UTPCPL applies to landlord-tenant cases, but maintains that treble damages awards are reserved only for the most egregious cases where the landlord’s conduct was deceitful and illegal. In support of its position, Landlord directs us to our unpublished, non-precedential memorandum in Pierre v. MP Cloverly Partners, LP, 133 A.3d 64

(Pa.Super. 2015), in contravention of this Court’s rules.[1] As additional examples of the type of egregious conduct that merited treble damages, Landlord cites Pikunse v. Kopchinski, 631 A.2d 1049 (Pa.Super. 1993), where the landlord discarded furniture and appliances in retaliation for the tenant’s failure to pay rent, and Wallace v. Pastore, 742 A.2d 1092 (Pa.Super. 1999), where the landlord withheld the tenant’s security deposit and misrepresented the existence and extent of property damage.

Furthermore, Landlord argues that the record reveals no deceptiveness on its part. It maintains that its representatives met with Mr. Erickson, inspected his apartment, explained the process for submitting maintenance requests, and provided the opportunity for him to note in the new lease that certain conditions required attention. He did not avail himself of that opportunity. According to Landlord, Mr. Erickson’s periodic requests for maintenance were acted upon after he followed the proper procedures and repaired, and treble damages were not warranted.

Mr. Erickson counters that the trial court properly applied the standard enunciated in Schwartz, supra, and rejected Landlord’s claim that egregious conduct was required to support an award of treble damages. He maintains that the trial court heeded the direction of the Supreme Court to “focus on the presence of intentional or reckless, wrongful conduct.” Id. at 898. Furthermore, he points to a record replete with instances of Landlord’s deception and false promises.

In Schwartz, our Supreme Court discussed the role of the court in assessing treble damages pursuant to the UTPCPL: [T]he statute, on its plain terms, does not provide any standard pursuant to which a trial court may award treble damages. In construing its terms, we find particularly relevant the principles of statutory construction authorizing consideration of the occasion and necessity for the statute, the mischief to be remedied, the object to be attained, and the consequences of a particular interpretation. See 1 Pa.C.S. § 1921(c).

Schwartz, supra at 898. The Court recognized that the UTPCPL is a consumer protection statute, in which the General Assembly has employed broad phrasing that our Supreme Court has instructed us to construe liberally. Recognizing that the UTPCPL’s treble damages provision had “both punitive and remedial aspects,” the Schwartz Court concluded that the trial court’s discretion “should not be closely constrained by the common-law requirements associated with the award of punitive damages.” Id. see also Meyer v. Cmty. College of Beaver County, 93 A.3d 806, 815 (Pa. 2014) (noting the hybrid nature of treble damages with both punitive and remedial aspects). Nonetheless, it cautioned that the trial court’s discretion was not unfettered. The Supreme Court concluded that trial courts “should focus on the presence of intentional or reckless, wrongful conduct, as to which an award of treble damages would be consistent with, and in furtherance of, the remedial purposes of the UTPCPL.” Schwartz, supra at 897-898. Appellate courts should review such decisions “for rationality, akin to appellate review of the discretionary aspect of equitable awards.” Id. at 898; Dibish v. Ameriprise Fin., Inc., 134 A.3d 1079, 1091 (Pa.Super. 2016).

The trial court applied the correct legal standard in making its determination. It found “multiple instances of intentional or

reckless, wrongful conduct by Nexus.”[2] Trial Court Opinion, 8/29/16, at 2. The court noted Nexus’s December 2014 assurances that defects in Mr. Erickson’s ceiling and heat would be remedied immediately. N.T., 5/5/16, at 14. Despite repeated complaints, the heat and air conditioning in Mr. Erickson’s apartment were non-functioning until September 10, 2015. Thus, Mr. Erickson endured a winter without heat and a summer without air conditioning. The trial court pointed to the report authored by the City of Pittsburgh Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections indicating that the large hole in the ceiling of the bathroom had not been properly repaired even after Mr. Erickson vacated the unit. Exhibit O.

The court credited Mr. Erickson’s testimony that when he contacted Nexus about the ceiling and the heat and air conditioning, they promised to take care of it or send it to maintenance. N.T., 5/5/16, at 15-16. Copies of email correspondence with Nexus confirmed that the latter promised that the repairs would be made “today” or “as soon as possible,” which did not occur. The court found credible Mr. Erickson’s testimony recounting his conversations with Nexus Vice President Craig Falk in August 2015, and expressly found incredible Nexus’s representation that Mr. Erickson did not report the problem with the heat until June 2015. The court concluded that Nexus could have devoted the necessary resources to repair Mr. Erickson’s ceiling, heat, and air conditioning by January or February 2015, but “deliberately delayed both in responding . . . and in devoting the resources necessary for the repairs.” Trial Court Opinion, 8/29/16, at 5. Nexus’s false promises and inaction was “cruel and callous behavior,” and the type of intentional or reckless, wrongful conduct that warranted treble damages under Schwartz.

There is no legal support for Landlord’s contention that the trial court should have applied some amorphous egregiousness measure in determining whether to award treble damages. The trial court applied the proper legal standard. Furthermore, we have no basis to disturb the court’s credibility determinations. In short, the record supplies a firm rational basis for the trial court’s finding that the harm to Mr. Erickson was caused by Landlord’s intentionally wrongful and deceptive conduct that supported an award of treble damages.”