Heinert v. Wichita Falls Hous. Auth., 07–13–00220–CV.

• Decision Date: 29 July 2014
• Docket Number: No. 07–13–00220–CV.,07–13–00220–CV.
• Citation: 441 S.W.3d 810
• Parties: Dennis HEINERT and All Other Occupants, Appellants v. WICHITA FALLS HOUSING AUTHORITY, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

441 S.W.3d 810

Dennis HEINERT and All Other Occupants, Appellants

v.WICHITA FALLS HOUSING AUTHORITY, Appellee.

No. 07–13–00220–CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Amarillo.

July 29, 2014.

Kyle Counce, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, Wichita Falls, for Appellants.

Reginald R. Wilson, Wichita Falls, for Appellee.

Before QUINN, C.J., and HANCOCK and PIRTLE, JJ.

OPINION

MACKEY K. HANCOCK, Justice.

Appellant, Dennis Heinert, appeals the trial court's judgment evicting him from his leased residence operated and managed by appellee, Wichita Falls Housing Authority (WFHA). On appeal, he contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the trial court's findings and conclusions as to the conditions that would lead to the termination of Heinert's lease. We will affirm.

Factual and Procedural History

The Parties to and Terms of the Lease

WFHA is a federally-supported independent Public Housing Agency (PHA) and provides housing to low-income individuals and families at reduced rental rates. Heinert has been adjudged disabled by the Social Security Administration and receives social-security disability income.¹ Heinert first began living in WFHA apartment 300C Lincoln in 2004 and remained in that apartment until he was evicted on April 13, 2013, when he was evicted in the underlying forcible detainer action leading to the instant appeal.

The most recent written lease agreement, automatically renewed annually by law, was dated August 4, 2009. By the terms of the lease, Heinert agreed to the following provisions, inter alia :

20. To act in a cooperative manner with neighbors, and Management staff. To refrain from and cause Resident's household members and guests to refrain from acting or speaking in an abusive or threatening manner toward neighbors and Management staff.

21. To act, and cause Resident's household members and guests to act in a manner that will not disturb other residents' peaceful enjoyment of their accommodations and that will be conducive to maintaining all Housing Authority developments in a decent, safe and sanitary condition.

...

24. That the Resident, all members of the Resident's household, guests and all other persons under the Resident's control shall not engage in any drug-related or violent criminal activity and any other criminal activity on or off the property that threatens others, including but not limited to:

a. Engaging in any criminal activity, to include theft, physical and verbal assaults, that threatens the health, safety, or right to peaceful enjoyment of WFHA's premises by other Tenants, WFHA employees, agents of WFHA, or other persons. A criminal conviction is not needed to demonstrate serious violations of the lease.

Heinert's Increasingly Erratic Behavior

Sometime around the late summer of 2012, Heinert began to engage more frequently in bizarre and, at times, alarming interaction with fellow residents in the apartment complex. Already generally considered a “disruptive tenant,” Heinert became the subject of more and more resident complaints to the staff at around this time.

One resident, who considered Heinert a friend and expressed her concern for his well-being, testified that Heinert repeatedly showed up at her apartment, both by invitation and without one. She was largely unbothered by the daytime drop-in visits but did not want him coming over after 9:00 p.m. She alerted Heinert of her wishes, but he continued to make unannounced nighttime visits and would, at times, try to open her locked door without her permission. She testified that Heinert would sometimes just sit on her porch and would often go over to another resident's apartment and rake leaves in the late night and wee morning hours despite that resident's wishes. Heinert would leave notes on another resident's vehicles asking the whereabouts of that one particular resident and would leave gifts for her though the gifts were always rejected.

Yet another resident testified that Heinert would come over uninvited to her house and rattle the doorknob to her locked door in an effort to gain entry. In fact, on one occasion, he did come into her home unannounced while she there. She was understandably startled when Heinert was present and attempted to make physical contact with her in the form of what she anticipated would be a hug. She reported the incident to WFHA staff. She testified that she was intimidated by Heinert and tried to avoid him when she was out and about in the complex or sitting outside her apartment. Heinert repeatedly approached her and asked her to watch his apartment because he suspected that people had been stealing from him. She complained, too, that whenever Heinert approached her, he would try to hug her, which she felt was inappropriate.

Interaction with WFHA Staff

In response to the increasing number of complaints from fellow residents of Heinert's behavior, the WFHA staff contacted Heinert, discussed with him his behavior and fellow residents' concerns, and attempted to counsel him on refraining from the uninvited visits to his neighbors. WFHA also attempted to contact area mental health resources, such as Adult Protective Services and the Helen Farabee Center, to arrange for services and assistance for Heinert.

On October 25, 2012, Heinert left a voicemail on the phone of WFHA's Executive Director Donna Piper. Though portions of the voicemail are difficult to hear or understand, Heinert can be heard saying “something about him being killed and other people were going to be killed” and referring to “bullets through [certain WFHA] truck[s].” The voicemail is approximately two minutes and seventeen seconds long and concludes with Heinert saying, “Take care and God bless you.” Piper reported the phone call to the police and filed a report.

In addition to its efforts to access mental health services for Heinert, WFHA staff also attempted to work with Heinert. Sometime after Heinert left the threatening voicemail, the WFHA staff called for a meeting with Heinert's brother, Ray, in an attempt to avoid eviction proceedings. Apparently, nothing of note came from that meeting. Shortly after WFHA initiated eviction proceedings in mid-November, Heinert showed up at the office in what seems to be an attempt to persuade WFHA staff to reconsider and abandon its eviction efforts. That meeting did not go as Heinert had wished; he became very upset and announced that he owned the WFHA, that he was going to fire the staff, and that there would be “bullets for everyone” before he stormed out of the office.

In response to Heinert's outburst, Piper instituted additional safety measures to protect her staff and the residents because she had known Heinert to possess a firearm and also knew him to be violent in the past—Heinert's brother, Ray, with whom the WFHA had frequent discussions regarding Heinert's behavior, reported that Heinert hit him and caused the black eye obvious on Ray's face at a meeting with WFHA staff. Maintenance requests made by Heinert following the message and the outburst were still answered by the staff but only with a police escort. Piper insisted that she was in a position to take the threats seriously; it was not within her expertise to decide whether he really meant to do harm to the staff. She testified that she personally felt threatened.

Even after eviction efforts were underway, Alison Duncan, WFHA self-sufficiency coordinator, invited both Heinert and Ray to a meeting in late November. Heinert came very late to that scheduled meeting and, it seems, again declared himself the owner of WFHA and threatened to fire Duncan. Nothing in the record suggests that any progress was made at that meeting, an apparent last-ditch effort to avoid eviction. According to Piper, eviction is not a measure WFHA enters into lightly.

Heinert's Mental Health and Disability

Beginning in December 2012, Stefanie Teruel became Heinert's case manager at the Helen Farabee Center for mental health. She testified that, as part of her duties as his case manager, she meets with Heinert for at least three hours a month—more typically, she meets with him weekly—and works with him on social skills, medication compliance, and economic problem-solving skills. She explained that Heinert “does tend to ramble” and “can be hard to follow.” She acknowledged, too, that he does have fairly evident mood swings and described Heinert as having a gap in his social skills that can lead him to become overly involved and fail to recognize that his attempts at closeness can become unwelcome by others.

Teruel testified that she does not believe that Heinert poses a threat to the WFHA staff. In fact, she denied any fear that Heinert would issue a threat against anyone and denied ever having seen him display any violent outburst. Teruel has never had to exercise her duty to report Heinert as a danger to himself or others. She did note that Heinert required more intensive treatment from the Helen Farabee Center beginning in December 2012 than he had required during previous visits to the center because he had begun to exhibit more paranoia, more racing thoughts, and more rambling. Even still, Teruel testified again, she did not consider Heinert to be a potential danger to anyone; she had been alone with Heinert on several occasions and never felt threatened at all by him. With respect to how Heinert's neighbors may respond to him, Teruel characterized Heinert as more of a “nuisance” than he is “intimidating.” The fellow residents' accounts of their interaction with Heinert largely reflect this “nuisance” characterization, although one specifically testified that she found him “intimidating.” Evidence pertaining to Heinert's hostile interactions with the WFHA staff conflict with Teruel's characterization of Heinert.

Judicial Proceedings, Reasonable Accommodation Requests

WFHA obtained a judgment of eviction in the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Place 1, of Wichita County, Texas, on November 30, 2012. On December 4, 2012, Heinert perfected his appeal by trial de novo to...