Clark v. Maryland Hospitality, Inc.
| Decision Date | 03 March 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-2091,91-2091 |
| Citation | 972 F.2d 338 |
| Parties | NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth Circuit. Thomas CLARK; Nancy Clark, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. MARYLAND HOSPITALITY, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellant, Edgar Sims, Jr.; Jeanette I. Sims, General partners of KDCA Partnership, a Maryland General Partnership; Andrew M. Sims, d/b/a Best Western Maryland Inn, Defendants. . Argued: |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.
Michael Patrick Broderick, DONOVAN & O'CONNELL, for Appellant.
Joseph M. Sellers, WASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW, for Appellees.
Jill Ann Reid, DONOVAN & O'CONNELL, for Appellant.
John P. Relman, WASHINGTON LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW, Elizabeth T. Jester, James E. Williams, JESTER & WILLIAMS, for Appellees.
Before WILKINSON, Circuit Judge, and BUTZNER and CHAPMAN, Senior Circuit Judges.
Maryland Hospitality, Inc., moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict after a jury found it intentionally discriminated against Thomas and Nancy Clark on the basis of race. The district court denied the motion. We affirm.
Maryland Hospitality, Inc., a motel management company, leases the Best Western Maryland Inn from KDCA Partnership. Thomas and Nancy Clark, two black individuals, live within five or six miles of the Maryland Inn. On July 5, 1988, a desk clerk denied them a room, telling them that the motel did not rent to local residents.
The Clarks filed a complaint with the Prince George's County Human Relations Commission alleging racial discrimination. The commission sent two testers to the motel, one black and the other white. The desk clerk asked the black tester for identification, then told him he could not stay in the motel because he was a local resident. Although the white tester used a local address when registering, the clerk on duty rented him a room without asking for identification or questioning his reasons for staying at the motel.
The Clarks sued Maryland Hospitality and individuals associated with Maryland Hospitality, claiming that the policy of not renting to local residents was a pretext for intentional racial discrimination. Count I alleged that the Clarks were denied "their right to full and equal enjoyment of the services, facilities, privileges, advantages and accommodations" of the motel in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000a et seq. Count II alleged that they were denied"the same right to make and enforce contracts as is enjoyed by white citizens" in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981.
The case was tried before a jury. The Clarks dismissed their claims against one of the individual defendants at the beginning of the trial.
The Clarks presented evidence that 109 local residents had stayed at the motel from June through August, 1988. Of the 21 who were contacted through a telephone survey, 20 were white. Five of them testified for the Clarks. The trial testimony indicated that the motel did not apply its policy uniformly and that the desk clerks had broad discretion in deciding who could stay at the motel. A survey of other Best Western motels in the area indicated...
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Clark v. Sims, s. 92-2398
... ... Edgar SIMS, Jr.; Jeanette I. Sims, General Partners of KDCA ... Partnership, a Maryland General Partnership; ... Maryland Hospitality, Incorporated, ... Defendants-Appellees, ... Andrew ... Best Western Maryland Inn, a motel in College Park, Maryland operated by Maryland Hospitality, Inc. At that time, the desk clerk told the Clarks, an African-American couple who live within six miles ... ...