Mathis v. Dist. of Columbia Hous. Auth.

• Decision Date: 08 October 2015
• Docket Number: 15–AA–740.,Nos. 13–CV–1026,s. 13–CV–1026
• Citation: 124 A.3d 1089
• Parties: Stevon MATHIS, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

124 A.3d 1089

Stevon MATHIS, Appellant,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY, Appellee.

Nos. 13–CV–1026

15–AA–740.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued Nov. 5, 2014.

Reargued June 2, 2015.

Decided Oct. 8, 2015.

Julie H. Becker, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, with whom John C. Keeney, Jr., Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, was on the brief, for appellant. Jonathan H. Levy, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, entered an appearance for appellant.

Frederick A. Douglas, with whom Curtis A. Boykinand Alex M. Chintella, Washington, DC, were on the brief, for appellee.

Karl A. Racine, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, Todd S. Kim, Solicitor General, Loren L. AliKhan, Deputy Solicitor General, and Stacy L. Anderson, Senior Assistant Attorney General, were on the brief for the District of Columbia, amicus curiae, in support of appellant.

Catherine E. Stetson, Shannon T. Hodge, Washington, DC, Rebecca Lindhurst, and Vytas Vergeer were on the brief for Bread for the City, amicus curiae, in support of appellant.

Opinion

EASTERLY, Associate Judge:

Stevon Mathis seeks review of the decision of the District of Columbia Housing Authority (“DCHA”) to terminate his federally funded rental assistance administered through the Housing Choice Voucher Program (“HCVP”). He argues that the DCHA's termination decision was unsupported by the agency's factual findings and was based on reasons for which Mr. Mathis was never given proper notice.

Potentially impeding our review of the merits of Mr. Mathis's case is a procedural wrinkle caused by a DCHA regulation, 14 DCMR § 8905.4(a) (2005), which suggests that HCVP participants must file suit in the Superior Court to obtain judicial review of adverse decisions by the DCHA. Mr. Mathis did this with the DCHA's tacit approval (which was later explicitly expressed in its briefing to this court). The alignment of the parties notwithstanding, the Superior Court questioned its jurisdiction because it determined that Mr. Mathis's agency case was “contested” and, under the District of Columbia Administrative Procedure Act (“DCAPA”), D.C.Code § 2–510(a)(2012 Repl.), should have been reviewed directly by this court. It is the Superior Court's order dismissing Mr. Mathis's case for lack of jurisdiction that Mr. Mathis initially asked us to review in his Notice of Appeal.

As the DCHA ultimately conceded at re-argument, given the nature of the DCHA's termination proceedings, the Superior Court was right. We thus affirm the trial court's determination that it lacked jurisdiction to review the DCHA's voucher termination decision.

We nevertheless directly reach the merits of the DCHA's voucher determination decision because, while this appeal was pending, Mr. Mathis filed with this court a petition for review of an agency order. SeeD.C.App. R. 15(a)(2). We conclude that Rule 15's thirty-day filing deadline is a claim-processing rule that may be equitably tolled, and, under the circumstances presented, we find ample basis for equitable tolling. Assessing the DCHA's termination decision, we are persuaded by Mr. Mathis's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, and thus we reverse.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In April 2008, Stevon Mathis signed a lease for an apartment on 36th Street N.E. with the assistance of a HCVP voucher. The HCVP, colloquially referred to as the “Section 8” program, is the federal rental housing subsidy program that was created by Section 8 of the Housing and Urban–Rural Recovery Act of 1983, which amended the United States Housing Act of 1937.See42 U.S.C. § 1437f (2013). The program was established “[f]or the purpose of aiding low-income families in obtaining a decent place to live and of promoting economically mixed housing.” Id.at § 1437f(a). The subsidy or “voucher” is portable and allows HCVP participants some measure of choice in which apartment to rent. The program is administered locally by Public Housing Agencies (“PHAs”); the DCHA is the PHA that administers the program in the District. D.C.Code § 6–202(b)(2012 Repl.).

In October 2009, a year and a half after he signed his lease, Mr. Mathis received notice that DCHA was terminating his participation in the HCVP. The notice, which was in the form of a postcard, stated that Mr. Mathis had “fail [ed] to comply with [his] Family Obligations in the Housing Choice Voucher Program.”¹Under a heading entitled “Summary of Facts” it stated: “TENANT ARRESTED FOR CRIMINAL [sic] RELATED ACTIVITY: ON 09/11/2009, PURSUANT TO A SEARCH WARRANT AND UNAUTHORIZED OCCUPANCY.” And, under a heading entitled, “Regulation Reference,” it listed without further explanation three federal regulations: 24 C.F.R. § 982.553(c)(2015),²24 C.F.R. § 982.551(l )(2015),³and 24 C.F.R. § 982.551(h)(2) (2015).⁴The postcard notice advised Mr. Mathis that he had the right to “appeal” the DCHA's termination decision at an “informal hearing,” and that to do so, he had to sign and date the postcard and return it to the agency “within 30 days of the postmark on this letter.”

Within a week of receiving his postcard notice, Mr. Mathis requested a hearing. In the letter acknowledging his request, the DCHA informed Mr. Mathis that he had “the following rights: a) to examine before the hearing, and, to copy all documents, record, and regulations of DCHA that are relevant to the hearing; b) to be represented by counsel or other representatives at [his] expense; c) to confront and cross-examine adverse witnesses; [and] d) to present evidence on [his] behalf.”

The hearing was conducted in April 2010 by a Hearing Officer from the DCHA's Office of Fair Hearings. An attorney appeared for the DCHA; Mr. Mathis represented himself (he had been given a continuance to try to find counsel but his efforts were unsuccessful). At the hearing, counsel for the DCHA acknowledged that Mr. Mathis could not have been arrested for drug activity on September 11, 2009, as the termination notice stated, because Mr. Mathis had been incarcerated on that day. Nonetheless, the DCHA's new theory was that Mr. Mathis's “brother,” Ernest Leon Ratchford, had been arrested on September 11, 2009, in conjunction with the execution of a search warrant at the 36th Street apartment; the DCHA argued that Mr. Ratchford was not “part of the [HCVP] approved family composition,” the implication being that he was not authorized to reside in the subsidized apartment for more than thirty days, and that, having done so, he became a de facto “family member”⁵for whose conduct Mr. Mathis could be held liable.⁶

To prove its case, the DCHA called one witness, a DCHA investigator. The investigator testified that he had received a complaint from the landlord about a search warrant being executed at the 36th Street apartment on September 11, 2009. He obtained a copy of the warrant and determined that Mr. Mathis was not at home when the warrant was served, but two other men, identified in police reports as Ernest Leon Ratchford and Ralph A. Coleman, were.⁷Based on these documents, the investigator testified that the two men were arrested, and that one of them told the police he was Mr. Mathis's brother.⁸The investigator also testified that he visited the 36th Street apartment on October 7, 2009, and spoke to Mr. Ratchford, who identified himself as Mr. Mathis's brother. According to the investigator, Mr. Ratchford said that Mr. Mathis was no longer incarcerated but that he was not at home because he was out looking for a moving truck as “they were in the process of moving.” The investigator then testified that Mr. Mathis called him “[a] day or so later” and that Mr. Mathis told the investigator that he had not been at home on September 11, 2009, that Mr. Ratchford was his brother, and that Mr. Ratchford had stayed with him for an unspecified amount of time.⁹

Mr. Mathis made an opening statement and testified on own behalf at the hearing. He explained that he had been incarcerated on a probation violation during the time when drugs were sold from his apartment and the search warrant was executed.¹⁰

He argued that he should not be held responsible for what had taken place in the 36th Street apartment while he was incarcerated. He explained that there had been a lot of criminal activity in the building and that other residents had already moved out. He too had found “another apartment the month before all this happened,” but then “was locked up.”¹¹Mr. Mathis denied giving anyone permission to stay in his apartment. He explained in his opening statement that “somebody broke into [his] apartment ... while [he] was gone,” and he subsequently testified that he had given Mr. Ratchford (who Mr. Mathis said was his cousin) his keys and let Mr. Ratchford “come down and check ... on the unit for [him].”¹²Mr. Mathis testified that he had tried to get Mr. Ratchford to come to the hearing, but had been unsuccessful.¹³

The Hearing Officer issued a written “Informal Hearing Decision” upholding the DCHA's decision to terminate Mr. Mathis's voucher. In her findings of fact, she determined that there was no evidence that Mr. Mathis had personally engaged in any drug-related criminal activity in the 36th Street apartment on September 11, 2009, and that the allegation in the notice of termination that he had been arrested at his residence was “not accurate.” The Hearing Officer also found that “it [was] somewhat of a leap to assume that [Mr.] Mathis necessarily knew that [Mr.] Ratchford was selling drugs from [Mr.] Mathis'[s] apartment”; and that not only was Mr. Mathis “in jail” at the time “and clearly not directly involved,” but also that the record evidence was consistent with his testimony that “he was trying to leave the drug-infested building prior to” this incident.

The Hearing Officer noted that Mr. Mathis's voucher could nevertheless be terminated if Mr. Ratchford had exceeded the thirty-day time limit to stay in Mr. Mathis's apartment as a visitor, thus becoming “a member of [Mr. Mathis's] hou...