HOLDINGS: [1]-A stipulated judgment in an unlawful detainer action, which required the tenants to pay an amount based on the claimed unpaid rent as a consequence of failing to vacate by a specified deadline, was an unenforceable penalty because the amount did not reasonably relate under Civ. Code, § 1671, subd. (b), to the range of actual damages the parties could have anticipated would flow from a breach of the stipulation; [2]-A liquidated damages analysis was appropriate because Code Civ. Proc., § 664.6, did not authorize the inclusion of an unlawful liquidated damages provision in a stipulated judgment, and thus the exception in § 1671, subd. (a), for other statutory standards did not apply; [3]-Because the tenants never admitted owing the amount sought and nothing in the record showed the landlord’s chances of recovering it, the stipulation was a compromise of disputed claims.
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Outcome
Reversed and remanded.