Recent Court Rulings

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Facts: A prospect with a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher sued an owner for discrimination based on her status as a public assistance recipient in violation of the state's human rights act. The prospect found a listing for a three-bedroom unit with an advertised rent that was within the voucher program limits. She claimed that when she called the office to ask about renting the unit, she disclosed that she would be using a voucher to pay the rent and was told that the owner doesn’t accept vouchers.

Facts: When a police officer was dispatched to a resident's unit to investigate a noise complaint, the officer detected the odor of recently burnt marijuana emanating from the unit and observed smoke lingering in the air. Two of the resident's guests told the officer that they had smoked marijuana in the unit.

Facts: A 73-year-old Section 8 resident was served with a 10-day eviction notice. The notice claimed that the resident had violated a substantial obligation of her lease agreement by "exhibit[ing] a chronic and systematic propensity for paying [her] rent late each month, allow[ing] arrears to accumulate over periods of months, and hav[ing] compelled the Landlord to commence numerous non-payment proceedings to collect rent" during the past 22 years of her tenancy.

Facts: A Section 8 resident sued her local PHA and an employee for discrimination against her due to her race, religion, and an undisclosed learning disability. The basis of the lawsuit stemmed from a conversation the resident had with the employee. The resident didn’t say when the conversation took place or provide any context for the exchange that occurred.

Facts: A resident in a public housing complex operated by the local PHA slipped and fell in a puddle of water that had leaked from a broken washing machine in a nearby laundry room as she was walking to her unit through a common hallway of her building. The fall resulted in injuries to her foot and ankle.

Facts: A resident’s daughter tripped and fell in a playground owned, operated, and maintained by the local PHA. The daughter was playing with a soccer ball in the playground. At one point, the ball traveled into a nearby planter. The daughter went into the planter to retrieve the ball and, in attempting to exit the planter, tripped over one of the metal wickets in the wicket fence surrounding the planter and fell, injuring her right arm. The resident sued the PHA for negligence.

Facts: A resident sued her local PHA after she slipped and fell on exterior steps covered in snow and ice. The steps connected the plaza outside her building to a park area that leads to an adjacent public roadway. At trial, the PHA didn’t dispute that it had constructive notice of the allegedly hazardous condition of the steps, which were an intended means of access between the building plaza and the sidewalk by the roadway.

Facts: As a condition of occupancy at a privately owned, mixed-income residential development, residents are required to submit to annual drug testing. When five residents refused to submit to the drug test even though they had previously consented to drug testing, the owners began eviction proceedings for violating their leases.

Facts: A local PHA sought to evict a resident because of the criminal conduct of her grandson. The trial court granted the eviction, but did so based on grounds that weren’t included in either of the two eviction notices served on her or in the complaint filed against her.

Facts: A resident sued the local PHA for allegedly depriving her of her due process rights by failing to give her an informal hearing to challenge: (1) the PHA’s calculation of her 2010 housing subsidy; (2) the PHA’s use of an inflated estimate of her income; and (3) the PHA’s failure to exclude her son and his income from the household promptly. The resident argued that the PHA didn’t conduct a timely inspection of her residence, in violation of HUD regulations and the administrative plan.