Hostile housing environment claim fails

The Second Circuit has affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of a hostile housing environment claim brought under the Fair Housing Act, finding that plaintiffs did not plausibly allege that they suffered severe or pervasive harassment by the landlord.

The case is B.L.M. v. Board of Managers of the Vireum Schoolhouse Condominium, a summary order issued on November 4. There is such a thing as a hostile housing environment case, based on the same principles as a hostile work environment claim, in that you have to show the racial (or other unlawful) harassment was severe or pervasive. But under a recent Second Circuit case, Francis v. Park Manor, 992 F.3d 67 (2d Cir. 2021), you cannot sue landlords for the racial harassment of the tenants. You have personally attribute the harassment to the landlords in some way, i.e., the landlord himself engaged in the harassment.

First, there is no severe or pervasive harassment. The Court of Appeals (Pooler, Lee and Englemayer [D.J.]) writes, "the only instances of alleged conduct that could be attributed to the Board, one of the Board’s members, or a Vireum resident acting in concert with the Board were the pattern of banging, stomping, and scraping noises coming from the unit above the unit occupied by A.L.M. and her family, and the pattern of behavior in which Vireum residents would intersect, come unwantedly close to, or temporarily block, Moore Family members as they came to or from their unit . . . We are unpersuaded, however, that a reasonable juror could not find that the Moore Family experienced a pervasive and severe hostile housing environment." While the noise was excessive (more than 100 times) and frequent, there is no evidence that it was motivated by race (plaintiffs are Chinese), gender or age. Their allegations about unlawful motivation are conclusory, the Court finds. 

Instead, the records suggests there were non-discriminatory reasons for this senseless harassment. It looks like the parties hated each other for other. The Court writes, 

there was evidence of long- standing antagonistic relations between Scott Moore [the plaintiff-tenant] and the Board relating to the operation of the building. The record includes, for example, email exchanges with the Board in which the Moores attempted to limit Vireum residents’ use of the condominium’s common areas, such as prohibiting them from gardening in front of the Moore Family’s unit, limiting the use of their parking spots, or standing in the parking area. Those exchanges indicate that the personal relations between the Moores and the Vireum Board and residents had irreparably broken down, for reasons independent of A.L.M.’s race and national origin or other protected characteristics.