Mattingly v. Elias, Civ. A. No. 69-2788.
| Decision Date | 21 April 1971 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 69-2788. |
| Citation | 325 F. Supp. 1374 |
| Parties | Carol MATTINGLY, Individually, and her minor children, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Gabriel ELIAS and Bella Angel, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Lorry W. Post, John C. Marston, Bucks County Legal Aid Society, Doylestown, Pa., for plaintiffs.
William J. Curlin, Begley, Carlin, Mandio, Kelton & Popkin, Bristol, Pa., for defendants.
The present action was instituted by certain tenants1 of Warminster Heights, a housing project owned and operated by the individual and corporate defendants in Warminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.2 Claiming that the degree of past and present Federal and state assistance to this project, as well as its essential public character, require that the defendants' conduct be measured by standards applicable to a government landlord, the plaintiffs have sought to found their action on 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 1985 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343.3 The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that the thirty (30) day lease which tenants of Warminster Heights are required to sign is unconscionable and void; a declaratory judgment that a warranty of habitability should be implied in any lease agreement between the tenants and defendants; and an injunction against the alleged retaliatory eviction of tenants for reporting housing code violations, seeking legal counsel and engaging in organizational activities. The answer to the complaint has challenged the propriety of jurisdiction under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.4 To resolve the basic questions of jurisdiction in the present action, the factual background of this case should first be briefly sketched.
The defendants own and operate a housing project in Warminster Township which was constructed by the Federal Government in 1942 to provide housing for defense workers.5 In 1957 the project was sold by the United States Government to the defendants. As part of the financing of this sale, the Federal National Mortgage Association provided a mortgage which has a present balance of $1,500,000. Since its construction, and particularly since its acquisition by the defendants, the Warminster Heights project has provided housing for low and medium income families. At present, the project has approximately 1,000 family dwelling units with about 50 vacant and uninhabitable units and a total residential population of approximately 5,000.
All tenants execute a lease with a term of thirty days. In addition to abiding by the terms of the lease, the tenants are required to comply with certain rules and regulations promulgated from time to time by the landlord. The landlord supplies electricity to tenants which is purchased at bulk rates from the Philadelphia Electric Company by a separate corporation controlled by the landlord.
The landlord from time to time avails himself of the eviction procedures provided by the Landlord and Tenant Act.6 According to this procedure, after the landlord files a complaint, a hearing is held before the district justice and an order of possession is issued thereafter if judgment is entered for the landlord.7 It is alleged that the local municipal police assist the landlord in effecting the eviction of a tenant. Depositions indicate that on three occasions in the last 13 years, the landlord has called upon the local police for this purpose.8 The defendants contend that in these instances, the function of the police has been to maintain order in the event that force would be necessary to regain possession of the leased premises. In none of the instances where the police were present was force necessary. The plaintiffs also aver that the local police patrol the project. The defendants assert that the purpose of the patrolling is to maintain peace and quiet in the project and that the defendants are entitled to such protection as property owners and taxpayers.
The plaintiffs' complaint alleges and the record indicates that there are numerous and substantial defects in the housing project which the landlord has failed to correct, or in some instances corrected only after prolonged delay. Allegations of serious defects and inadequacies in plumbing, in the maintenance of walls and ceilings, in the removal of trash and garbage and in the breakdown of basic appliances in the apartments are substantiated in the record developed in this proceeding.
I think that a fair landlord owes his tenants a management policy more sensitive than that evidenced by the past conduct of the defendants. Yet, the Federal Courts are not the forum for eradicating all acts of injustice to the poor, the deprived and the weak. Despite the substantial and just grievances which the tenants of Warminster Heights can point to as part of their daily experience, this Court does not have the appropriate federal jurisdictional power to grant relief to them.
The record indicates numerous instances where the obligations accepted by the defendants in this mortgage agreement have not been fulfilled. These violations include either prolonged delay in repairing or complete failure to correct serious defects in the plumbing, the structure of the buildings and the operation of essential appliances. The following examples illustrate the failures and inadequacies in the repair of the dwelling units and the maintenance of the premises of Warminster Heights.
Richard Deasey, a reporter for a Bucks County newspaper, rented a unit at Warminster Heights in order to gain some direct exposure to the conditions about which tenants had complained, and testified to the following defects in the condition of his apartment. He found the roof of the living room caving in, several inches of curdled milk in the refrigerator, the oven unit of the stove "all rusted and broken", the bedroom ceiling collapsing and leaking with mold forming around the point of the leak. He found a part of the toilet on the bathroom floor and the bathroom sink "partly falling off the wall." He described the general condition of the bathroom as "filthy." (Tr. July 14, 1970, pp. 21-22.) The wiring in the boiler room of his apartment was exposed, and there was water on the floor. There was a hole approximately five feet square above the boiler which went through to the roof. One of the doors to the adjoining coal bin did not fit tightly, and during the winter months cold air seeped into the apartment.9 Although he complained on numerous occasions, asking for adequate repairs to be made, Mr. Deasey testified that the oven was never fixed and, therefore, he was never able to cook in his apartment. Also, when the toilet was flushed, it leaked at its base over the bathroom floor. Although he "complained constantly" the toilet was "never repaired."10
Anna Jaggers, who has resided at Warminster Heights for four years with her husband and seven children, testified that a workman of the landlord installed a new toilet for her apartment but broke the toilet in the process of installation.11 Although the toilet did not function properly, she was still charged $15.00 for its installation. When Mrs. Jaggers first moved into her apartment, the walls were broken in her upstairs bedroom. The cement steps of her apartment wash away each time it rains. A window which Mrs. Jaggers had frequently asked to have repaired fell down on her left wrist, requiring treatment at a hospital. The window still had not been fixed at the time of her testimony.12
Mrs. Shirley Daniels signed a lease for an apartment at Warminster Heights, and paid rent for March, April and May of 1970, but because the broken toilet in the apartment was never fixed, she and her children never slept overnight at the apartment.13
Laura Hamel, a resident of Warminster Heights since 1967, testified that her hot water heater did not work for the first five months that she lived in the apartment. Although she complained, often as frequently as once a day, these complaints did not lead to the prompt repair of the defective unit.14 Her oven also did not work for a period of five months and was finally fixed by a friend, rather than by an employee of the landlord.15
Mrs. Mildred Hunt, who lives at Warminster Heights with her husband and three children, asked for a hole in the floor of her kitchen to be repaired, but was told to "forget it" by an employee of the landlord. The hole in her kitchen runs from the sink to the wall and covers "about one-fourth of the kitchen.16 Mrs. Hunt testified that her husband tried to fix the hole in the kitchen floor but that the landlord refused to provide the wooden beam needed for this repair. She also testified that because of a hole in the wall of her bathroom "I can sit in my bathtub and watch the man next door in his."17 Although she has constantly asked to have this condition corrected, no one from the landlord's office visited her apartment to investigate or correct this condition. Also, a board missing at the juncture of the roof with one of the sidewalls of her dwelling allowed cold air to flow into her apartment.18 Mrs. Hunt also testified that garbage had been allowed to remain outside her apartment uncollected for about six weeks, and that rats played all over the garbage while it remained uncollected.19
Marian Heiber, who has resided at Warminster Heights for two years with her husband and four children, testified that when her family moved in the coal stove did not work; in spite of frequent complaints, the stove was not repaired; and the house was therefore extremely cold during the winter. Her three year old child had pneumonia twice during the winter, and had to be taken away from the house several times. Her husband eventually fixed the stove the following fall.
Raleigh Napes, who was employed by Dr. Elias to do maintenance work between December 1965 and August of 1967, had previously been employed by the City of Philadelphia for fourteen years as a...
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