Arthur v. City of Toledo, Ohio
| Citation | 782 F.2d 565 |
| Decision Date | 02 April 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-3898,84-3898 |
| Parties | Tony ARTHUR (Deceased), et al., Plaintiffs, Peggy Arthur, on her behalf and on behalf of all others similarly situated; Janice Holloway, Barbara Richardson and Michael Webb, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF TOLEDO, OHIO; Douglas DeGood, in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of Toledo; Gene Cook, William Copeland, Andrew Douglas, Sandra Isenberg, Ray Kest, Daniel McNamara, Raymond Nies, Leo Puccetti, in their official capacities as Members of the Toledo City Council; Walter Kane, in his official capacity as City Manager of the City of Toledo; Eugene Kasper, in his official capacity as Director of Public Service for the City of Toledo; et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Thomas A. Karol (argued), Glenn G. Galbreath, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc., Toledo, Ohio, for plaintiffs-appellants.
Charles A. Matuszynski, John D. Scouten, Robert G. Young (argued), Sarah McHugh, William Connelly-lead counsel, Connelly, Soutar & Jackson, Toledo, Ohio, Kevin E. Joyce, for defendants-appellees.
Before KENNEDY and KRUPANSKY, Circuit Judges and BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge.
Plaintiffs-appellants brought this class action against the City of Toledo ("the City"), the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority ("LMHA"), and various individual defendants in their official capacities as officers and agents of the City and LMHA. The District Court certified a class consisting of "all low and moderate income persons who are on the waiting list for Turnkey III housing" and a sub-class consisting of "all persons on the Turnkey III waiting list who are minority persons." Plaintiffs-appellants alleged violations of the fifth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution; article I, section 10 ("the contract clause") of the United States Constitution; Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 ("The Fair Housing Act of 1968"), 42 U.S.C. Secs. 3601-3631; and 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981, 1982 & 1983. Plaintiffs-appellants challenged two September 13, 1977 referendum votes which repealed two city ordinances granting LMHA the authority to construct sewer extensions to Talmadge Woods and Sunbrook Glen, two proposed public housing sites.
On August 12, 1968, the City adopted a resolution approving the application by the Toledo Metropolitan Housing Authority ("TMHA"), the predecessor of LMHA, to the Housing Assistance Administration of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") for a preliminary loan to cover the costs of surveys and planning in the development or acquisition of approximately three thousand dwelling units for low-rent public housing in the City. Subsequently, the City and the TMHA entered into a "Cooperation Agreement" which required the City to "provide, or cause to be provided, water mains, and storm and sanitary sewer mains" leading to the low-rent housing sites. As a result of the resolution and the "Cooperation Agreement," between 1970 and 1977 the City applied for and received approximately $225-230 million in urban renewal funds from HUD.
During that period, HUD expressed concern that the City was failing to disperse the low and moderate income housing outside the inner city areas. In 1975, HUD established a requirement that the City develop three new housing units outside the central city renewal areas for every one unit within that area. In a letter from HUD Area Director Paul G. Lydens to Mayor Harry Kessler, Lydens stated: "In arriving at this ratio, [HUD] considered many factors and statistics, but in the end, this ratio is simply an effort to begin to redress the imbalance of housing opportunities for low and moderate income families in the City of Toledo."
On March 12, 1976, the City passed an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to submit an application for a $11,017,000 Block Entitlement Grant to HUD. The application stated that the proposed new construction "would meet Toledo's objective of dispersing housing that is affordable by low and moderate income families as well as meet HUD's criterion." An LMHA Site Selection Committee composed of various agencies including plaintiffs' counsel selected the Talmadge Woods and Sunbrook Glen sites for Turnkey III housing. HUD developed the Turnkey Home Ownership Program to enable limited-income families to purchase homes and obtain an upward mobility advantage in society. Under the program, a family pays for utilities, including water and sewage, and then also pays twenty percent of the family's income for housing. Essentially, the family buys the home under a thirty-year lease-purchase agreement. If the family can later finance the balance owed through a conventional mortgage, the family can own the home in less than thirty years.
LMHA proposed to build sixteen single family detached homes at Talmadge Woods and seventeen single family detached homes at Sunbrook Glen, which is also known as Mellwood Court. LMHA hired Collaborative, Inc., an architectural firm to design homes for the two locations. Collaborative, Inc. designed thirty-three single family dwellings, which varied in design between wood and brick, to fit in with the existing neighborhoods. The Toledo City Plan Commission approved the Talmadge Woods plat on August 5, 1976 and the Sunbrook Glen plat on September 23, 1976.
The City Council referred the ordinances authorizing LMHA to construct sewer extensions to both sites to the City Services Committee for review and recommendation. Although the City Council had not previously referred any other sewer extension ordinances to the City Services Committee, the District Court found that on January 30, 1975 the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency notified the City that Sanitary Sewer # 49, which would have served Talmadge Woods and Sunbrook Glen, was at or very near maximum flow capacity. Consequently, the District Court found that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency warning mandated the City's departure from "established procedure" and that a discriminatory purpose did not motivate the referrals to the City Services Committee. After the City Services Committee recommended disapproval of the sewer extension ordinances to both Talmadge Woods and Sunbrook Glen, the City Council rejected the ordinances on March 1, 1977 by a five to four vote.
After HUD threatened not to recertify the City's housing program and to withhold previously approved federal money in response to the rejection of the sewer ordinances, the City resubmitted the sewer extension ordinances to the City Council. On March 24, 1977, the City Council passed the ordinances authorizing LMHA to construct the necessary sewers to both sites by five to four votes. Opponents of the projects, however, filed petitions requesting referendums on the two sewer ordinances with the City's Clerk of Council on April 23 and April 24, 1977. The City Council certified the two referendum petitions to the Lucas County Board of Elections, which held the referendums on September 13, 1977. By a vote of approximately three to one, the voters repealed the sewer extension ordinances.
The District Court tried the case on the issue of liability only. Over plaintiffs' objections, the District Court allowed defendants to introduce evidence of events occurring after the date of the challenged referendums. The District Court entered judgment for defendants and dismissed plaintiffs' complaint with prejudice. The District Court concluded that plaintiffs' claims were moot because the District Court could not order relief because the City had spent the federal funds on comparable units on scattered sites and no federal funds were currently available. The District Court also concluded that the breach of the "Cooperation Agreement" occurred by operation of law. The District Court found plaintiffs had not demonstrated either racial bias in the total electorate or discriminatory intent by the defendants. Finally, the District Court found that plaintiffs had not shown discriminatory impact because the referendums affected whites and minorities equally.
Plaintiffs-appellants raise five issues on appeal: (1) Whether the District Court properly held that plaintiffs-appellants' claims were moot; (2) Whether a referendum vote can excuse the City of Toledo from a breach of its contractual obligations with LMHA; (3) Whether the District Court's finding that plaintiffs-appellants had not demonstrated racial discrimination as a motivating factor in the referendum votes was clearly erroneous; (4) Whether the District Court's finding that the referendums did not have a racially discriminatory effect and consequently did not violate the Fair Housing Act was clearly erroneous; and (5) Whether the District Court improperly admitted post-referendum evidence for the purpose of absolving defendants from liability for the alleged discriminatory acts. For the reasons set forth below, we hold that although plaintiffs' claims are not moot, the City did not breach its contractual obligations with the LMHA. We also hold that the District Court's findings that plaintiffs-appellants did not prove that the referendums had a racially discriminatory intent or effect are not clearly erroneous. Finally, we hold that the District Court properly admitted post-referendum evidence. Accordingly, we affirm the District Court decision entering judgment for defendants and dismissing plaintiffs' complaint with prejudice.
The District Court concluded that "[p]laintiffs [sic] claims are moot because the Court can offer no relief where no federal funds are available." Plaintiffs-appellants argue that since they sought damages as part of their prayer for relief from the alleged unlawful discriminatory actions, their claims are not moot because a violation of Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 would...
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