Herndon v. Hous. Auth. of S. Bend
| Decision Date | 14 November 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 16-2821,16-2821 |
| Parties | CYNTHIA M. HERNDON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOUSING AUTHORITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, and JOANNE WATFORD, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
Before DIANE P. WOOD, Chief Judge JOEL M. FLAUM, Circuit Judge DIANE S. SYKES, Circuit Judge
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division.
ORDER
Cynthia Herndon, a public-housing tenant, appeals the dismissal of her civil-rights suit against the Housing Authority of South Bend and its property manager, Joanne Watford, asserting violations of the Equal Protection Clause; the Fair Housing Act ("FHA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601 et seq.; the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"),42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq.; the United States Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1437 et seq.; and Executive Orders 11063, 12892, and 13217. We affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand.
Herndon alleged in her complaint that during an encounter late in 2014, Watford racially discriminated against her and harassed her on account of her child-custody issues. Because she is white and her male partner is black, Herndon believed that race motivated the actions of Watford, who is also black, so in January 2015 Herndon filed a racial-discrimination complaint with the Indiana Human Rights Commission. On the same day that she filed her complaint with the Commission, Watford and the Housing Authority allegedly retaliated against her in violation of the FHA by conducting ongoing "racially motivated" inspections of her unit and failing to provide repair services for her unit. The Commission later issued a finding of no probable cause on her racial-discrimination complaint.
Herndon also asserted that the Housing Authority discriminated and retaliated against her with regard to her lease recertification in 2015. Because of a time conflict she had, the Housing Authority allowed Herndon to reschedule her recertification appointment; she missed the new appointment, however, and the Housing Authority notified her the next day that it was terminating her lease on April 25. The notice cited her failure to attend the recertification appointment and provide required documentation. Herndon then filed this suit against Watford and the Housing Authority.
Soon afterward Herndon asked the magistrate judge to recruit counsel for her. She sought the recruitment of counsel four times. The magistrate judge denied each request on grounds that she appeared competent to try the case herself. Believing that the court's refusal to recruit counsel for her reflected bias, she moved to recuse the judge. He denied that motion, explaining that recusal was not proper when the movant infers bias from court rulings without any extrajudicial evidence of bias.
The district judge dismissed Herndon's suit for failure to state a claim. Not only were Herndon's allegations conclusory, the judge concluded, but she failed to plead facts that would allow an inference that the defendants intentionally discriminated against her based on a protected ground in violation of the FHA, the ADA, or the Equal Protection Clause. Her ADA and FHA claims of discrimination also failed, the judge added, because she did not assert that she was "disabled" as defined by those statutes. See 42 U.S.C. § 3602(h); id. § 12102(3)(A). Nor could she state a retaliation claim under the FHA because any causal link between her eviction and her complaint with the Human Rights Commission was "attenuated" by her failure to complete the recertification process. And she failed to state a claim with regard to any violation of Executive Orders 11063, 12892, and 13217, which do not create a private right of action. Finally, she could not state a claim under the United States Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1437 et seq., because public-housing agencies must give tenants only 30 days' written notice of lease termination—not 90 as she alleged, see id. § 1437d(l)(4)(C)—a timeline that was satisfied by the defendants' notice.
On appeal Herndon primarily challenges the district court's ruling that she did not allege sufficient facts to state a claim of racial discrimination. Indeed, the pleading standard for simple claims of racial or sex discrimination is "minimal." Tamayo v. Blagojevich, 526 F.3d 1074, 1084 (7th Cir. 2008). "[O]nce a plaintiff alleging illegal discrimination has clarified that it is on the basis of her race, there is no further information that is both easy to provide and of clear critical importance to the claim." EEOC v. Concentra Health Servs, Inc., 496 F.3d 773, 782 (7th Cir. 2007). Herndon's complaint describes the kind of discrimination that she believes occurred (racial), the timing of the alleged discrimination (December 2014 until May 2015), and the identity of those responsible (Watford and the Housing Authority). She adds that the inspections of her unit were "racially motivated" and that the lease recertification process was done "in pretext of race." The district court erred when it required Herndon to plead more specific facts that would establish the defendants' discriminatory intent because nothing more was required for Herndon to state a claim of racial discrimination. See Swanson v. Citibank, N.A., 614 F.3d 400, 405 (7th Cir. 2010) ().
Herndon also challenges the district court's dismissal of her retaliation claim under the FHA. In order to state a retaliation claim, she must allege that the defendants "coerced, threatened,...
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