Many of these were legal, but some may not have been: class action lawsuits in Texas and California alleged that Blackstone’s Invitation charged illegal, excessive late fees to its residents.53 As of December 2022, the Texas case remains ongoing, but the court in California declined to certify the class of plaintiffs and dismissed the action. It did so in part because the lead plaintiff had signed his lease with Invitation’s predecessor companies, which Invitation absorbed through various acquisitions.54 In other words, the companies’ various mergers with one another had the incidental effect of insulating them from liability for their alleged past wrongdoing.