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\u201cThe Court accepts as true all of the well-pleaded facts in the Complaint and draws all reasonable inferences in favor of Plaintiffs.\u201d So said U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama<\/a> on 12.4.2025. According to Reuters<\/a>: \u201cA group of companies that lease land for mobile homes has convinced a federal judge in Chicago to dismiss a proposed nationwide class action accusing them of conspiring to inflate lot rents.\u201d That suit in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division styled \u201cManufactured Home Lot Rents Antitrust Litigation,\u201d Case No. 23-cv-06715<\/a>. \u201cU.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama on Thursday\u00a0said <\/a>the plaintiffs had failed for now to plausibly allege a price-fixing agreement among corporate owners and operators of manufactured home communities.\u201d But Valderrama\u2019s ruling can be viewed as a kind of roadmap on what is necessary to fix \u201cthose well-pleaded facts.\u201d If the plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys \u2013 or other litigators in their wake \u2013 pay close attention, the setback can be remedied by revised pleading until 1.5.2025. If they do so, it may prove useful for those looking to HUD Code manufactured housing as a viable solution to the affordable housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Background about the defendants and pull quotes from Valderrama will set the stage for what follows.<\/p>\n

Per the memorandum by Valderrama<\/a>. The defendants in this action are: \u201cEquity LifeStyle Properties, Inc. (ELS), Hometown America Management, L.L.C. (Hometown America), Lakeshore Communities, Inc. (Lakeshore), Sun Communities, Inc. (Sun Communities), RHP Properties, Inc. (RHP), Yes Communities, LLC (Yes Communities), Inspire Communities, LLC (Inspire Communities), Kingsley Management, Corp. (Kingsley), Cal-Am Properties, Inc.\u2019s (Cal-Am), and Murex Properties, L.L.C. (Murex) (collectively MHC Defendants), MHC owners\/operators, as well as Defendant Datacomp Appraisal Systems, Inc. (Datacomp), the nation\u2019s largest provider of manufactured and mobile home data (collectively, Defendants).\u201d<\/p>\n

Valderrama <\/a>aptly stated: \u201cIn December 2021, MHC Defendant ELS purchased Datacomp<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

From an MHI member<\/a> linked quarterly MHReview <\/a>in an article entitled: \u201cConcerned Community Owner Common Sense Defeats The Stupidity Of the \u201cPrice Fixing\u201d Class Action\u201d <\/a>was the following assertion.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor several years now the mobile home park industry has been under the cloud of a massive \u201cprice-fixing\u201d class action against several of the largest owners and clients of Datacomp. Recently, however, the whole mess was tossed out when U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to plausibly allege a price-fixing agreement or conspiracy under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The judge said the evidence presented did not show a clear \u201cinvitation\u201d to join a conspiracy among the defendants, but rather parallel conduct insufficient on its own to prove collusion.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several remarks in that article read like comments made by longtime MHReview<\/a> contributor Frank Rolfe, a partner with Dave Reynolds in Mobile Home University and Impact Communities, among other manufactured housing industry connected enterprises. Rolfe\u2019s and Reynolds\u2019 led Impact Communities is an MHI member<\/a>. But regardless of who wrote the article, it may prove useful in several ways. The author obviously pressed the point of a lack of \u201ca clear invitation to join a conspiracy among defendants<\/a>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

A clear \u201cinvitation\u201d to join and collude was cited multiple times as an issue Valderrama<\/a> felt plaintiffs failed to meet.<\/p>\n

That noted, Valderrama<\/a> also observed this.<\/p>\n

\u201c..Defendants argue that, without more, Defendants\u2019 membership in an industry group does not increase the likelihood of a price-fixing conspiracy, and Plaintiffs do not allege that subsequent price changes were correlated to industry group meetings. Reply at 10 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 567 n.12 (mere allegation that defendants \u201cbelong[ed] to various trade associations\u201d insufficient to permit inference of \u201cconspir[acy] to restrain trade\u201d)\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

MHI is the apparent trade group referenced by Valderrama<\/a> and plaintiffs. MHI no longer publicly lists members, but according to a prior MHI published list found here, <\/a>8 of the 11 defendants are MHI members. Currently, MHI\u2019s board chairman is ELS COO Patrick Waite<\/a>. ELS owns Datacomp, MHVillage, and MHInsider, as is documented here<\/a>.<\/p>\n