Landlords Ask State Court To Reverse Condo Ruling

City landlords have asked the State's Supreme Judicial Court to overturn a two-week old decision that would allow Cambridge to sharply limit condominium conversions in the city.

The petition for a rehearing states that the justices misread applicable statutes when they unanimously upheld the city's controversial restrictions on condominium conversion.

City councilor David Sullivan, who drafted the condominium-control ordinance, said yesterday the petition also "hinted strongly" that the landlords would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if the state's high court did not reverse their decision.

"The first step is to see whether the court takes it seriously," Sullivan said. If the court grants a hearing, then the city will be allowed to file an answer, Sullivan added.

If the court did not grant a rehearing, a new decision could "nibble around the edges of the ordinance" but would probably leave most sections of the ordinance intact, Sullivan said. "I am confident the heart of the law will be sustained," he added.

Members of the law firm handling the case were unavailable for comment yesterday.

Their petition charges both that people who had bought the condominium units before the ordinance went into effect should be allowed to occupy them, and that the Rent control Board lacks the power to block condominium conversions.

The state court upheld the ordinance in a strongly worded decision two weeks ago.

That decision stated that limitations on condominium conversion, if adopted for some legitimate purpose, were well within the constitutional powers of city government.

Cambridge city councilors adopted the ordinance in August of 1979 after tenant groups charged that hundreds of city apartments were being converted to condominiums.

Under the ordinance, the Rent Control Board must grant conversion permits before any city apartment covered under rent control statutes could be converted to condominiums. The ordinance has sharply curtailed condominium conversion in the city.