Coles v. Havens Realty Corp.

Decision Date18 September 1980
Docket NumberNo. 79-1199,79-1199
Citation633 F.2d 384
PartiesPaul Allen COLES, Plaintiff, and Sylvia Coleman, R. Kent Willis, and on behalf of all others similarly situated, and Housing Opportunities Made Equal, a Virginia Corporation, Appellants, v. HAVENS REALTY CORPORATION, a Virginia Corporation, and Rose Jones, Appellees.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Vanessa Ruiz, Washington, D. C. (Daniel M. Singer, Theodore C. Hirt, Dennis J. Riley, Josephine L. Ursini, Raymond E. Mabus, Jr., Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Kampelman, Washington, D. C., James F. Stutts, McSweeney & Stutts, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellants.

Richard W. Hogan, Richmond, Va. (Linda L. Royster, Hirschler, Fleischer, Weinberg, Cox & Allen, Richmond, Va., on brief), for appellees.

Before FIELD, Senior Circuit Judge, and HALL and SPROUSE, Circuit Judges.

SPROUSE, Circuit Judge:

This is an appeal from a final judgment of the district court granting defendants' motion to dismiss an action involving allegations of "racial steering" and racial discrimination in the rental of housing accommodations in the City of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. "Racial steering" is a practice by which real estate brokers and agents preserve and encourage patterns of racial segregation by steering members of racial and ethnic groups to buildings occupied primarily by members of their own racial or ethnic group and away from buildings and neighborhoods inhabited by members of other races or groups.

This suit was brought under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601, 3604, 3612(a) (hereafter Fair Housing Act) and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1982. The district court dismissed all the claims except that of a single plaintiff, Paul Allen Coles. It held that the other claims were time-barred by the 180-day limitation period of the Fair Housing Act, and that the other plaintiffs lacked standing to assert discrimination claims under either statute. After a careful review of the law, we conclude that all plaintiffs have standing under the Fair Housing Act and that their claims are not time-barred. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings. We do not reach the questions of standing under 42 U.S.C. § 1982.

The corporate plaintiff in this action is Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). HOME is a Virginia nonprofit corporation with about 600 members created for the purpose of eliminating unlawful, discriminatory housing practices, thereby seeking to make equal opportunity in housing a reality in the Richmond Metropolitan Area. HOME activities include: assisting individuals of all races in obtaining housing in the metropolitan area through the operation of a housing counseling service; investigating allegations of discrimination and referring complaints to appropriate federal and state authorities; conducting independent investigations of real estate brokers located in the metropolitan area to determine whether housing is being made available without regard to race; and taking appropriate steps to eliminate any racial discriminatory housing practices it may have found to exist.

The three individual plaintiffs, a "renter" and two "testers", reside in the City of Richmond or Henrico County. Paul Allen Coles, a black person, unsuccessfully sought to rent housing accommodations from the defendants. The two "tester" plaintiffs, Sylvia Coleman, a black person, and R. Kent Willis, a white person, contacted defendants in regard to the availability of rental apartments in the course of their employment with HOME to determine whether defendants were practicing racial steering. Corporate defendant is Havens Realty Corporation (Havens), which is in The factual allegations in the complaint must be accepted as true in the present posture of the case. 1 So construed, the complaint reflects the following facts relevant to the disposition of this appeal.

the business of providing real estate brokerage services for rental apartment units in Richmond. The remaining defendant is Rose Jones, a Havens employee.

An unnamed black tester on March 14, 1978, inquired about rental vacancies at Havens and was told by Rose Jones that nothing was available. Later that day Willis, the white tester, asked about vacancies and was told by Jones that apartments were available at Colonial Court and Camelot Townhouses. Colonial Court is integrated and Camelot Townhouse is predominately occupied by whites. A week later on March 21, 1978, black tester Sylvia Coleman asked generally about vacancies in apartments in Henrico County and was informed by one of Havens' employees that nothing was available, although the same day white tester R. Kent Willis was informed by Jones that there was an apartment at Colonial Court. Two days later, on March 23, 1978, black tester Coleman again asked Jones about vacancies and was told that nothing was available. White tester Willis was informed that day by Jones that an apartment was available at Colonial Court. On July 6, 1978, black tester Coleman asked specifically about Camelot Townhouses and again received a negative response, but she was told about a vacancy at Colonial Court. That same day white tester John Barr, upon inquiry, was told an apartment was available at Camelot Townhouses.

Coles visited Havens' offices on July 13, 1978, inquiring into the availability of apartments at Camelot Townhouses. He was informed there were no vacancies at Camelot but that an apartment was available in the adjoining integrated Colonial Court complex. The same day John Barr, a white tester, was informed by Rose Jones telephonically that an apartment was available at Camelot Townhouses-upon visiting the defendant's offices Barr was again informed that an apartment was available in the Camelot Townhouses.

The plaintiffs filed this action on January 9, 1979, individually and as a class action. The class included all persons who have rented or sought to rent residential property in Henrico County, Virginia, and who are adversely affected by the defendants' discriminatory acts, policies and practices. They seek declaratory and injunctive relief for the class, as well as an order requiring Havens to take various affirmative actions to overcome the effect of its past discriminatory actions. The individual plaintiffs, in addition, seek compensatory and punitive damages. HOME asks for its activity and litigation expenses.

Plaintiffs allege that the Richmond Metropolitan Area, including Henrico County, is racially segregated in its housing patterns; that is, it contains identifiable "white" and "black" neighborhoods; that the defendants' practices of racial steering contribute to the maintenance of existing neighborhood segregation and inhibit the development of stable, racially integrated neighborhoods; that defendants treat white and non-white prospective lessees differently based on their race or color; that defendants have engaged in practices to the detriment and injury of the plaintiffs and other similarly situated persons by consistently showing only prospective white customers rental units in buildings occupied primarily by white tenants, by consistently refusing or failing to show black prospective customers rental units in buildings occupied primarily by white tenants, and, on occasion, by failing or refusing to show prospective black customers rental units in less racially segregated buildings.

The complaint alleges that tester plaintiff Coleman (because of her race) and white tester Willis have been denied the right to rent real property in Henrico County and therefore have been deprived of the advantages and conveniences they would have enjoyed from living in this area, namely the right to the important social, professional It is also alleged that all the members of the class have been deprived of the right to the important social, professional, business and economic, political and aesthetic benefits of interracial associations that arise from living in integrated communities free from discriminatory housing practices, in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

business and economic, political and aesthetic benefits of interracial associations that arise from living in integrated communities free from discriminatory housing practices.

The complaint alleges that HOME has had to devote significant resources to identify and counteract the defendants' racially discriminatory steering practices; and that HOME members have, as a result of defendants' practices, been deprived of the right to the important social, professional, business and economic, political and aesthetic benefits of interracial associations that arise from living in integrated communities free from discriminatory housing practices in violation of the Fair Housing Act.

STANDING

All plaintiffs have standing. Willis and Coleman have standing as testers but, even if this were not so, they have alleged sufficient personal harm to give them standing. HOME has Article III standing both as a representative of its members and on the basis of its allegations of harm to the corporation.

I TESTERS

The question of standing for testers under the Fair Housing Act was left unanswered by the Supreme Court in its seminal pronouncement on Fair Housing Act standing in Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979). The involvement of Willis and Coleman and their treatment by the defendants, however, presents strong public policy reasons for resolving that question in favor of Fair Housing Act standing for bona fide testers. The basic appropriateness of affording them standing to litigate today's issues of fair housing parallels the importance of the right to litigate the crucial issues decided in Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967) and Evers v. Dwyer, 358 U.S. 202, 79 S.Ct. 178, 3 L.Ed.2d 222 (1958). There are, of course, distinctions in the cases, but the...

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  • Havens Realty Corporation v. Coleman
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • February 24, 1982
    ...that the incident of steering involving Coles deprived Coleman of her § 804(d) right to truthful housing information. Pp. 380-381. 633 F.2d 384 (4th Cir. 1980), affirmed in part and reversed in Everette G. Allen, Jr., Richmond, Va., for petitioners. Vanessa Ruiz, Washington, D. C., for resp......
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