Simmons v. T.M. Assocs. Mgmt., Inc.

• Decision Date: 14 February 2018
• Docket Number: Case No. 3:17–cv–00066
• Citation: 287 F.Supp.3d 600
• Parties: Annette SIMMONS and Derek Simmons, Plaintiffs, v. T.M. ASSOCIATES MANAGEMENT, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Virginia

287 F.Supp.3d 600

Annette SIMMONS and Derek Simmons, Plaintiffs,

v.T.M. ASSOCIATES MANAGEMENT, INC., Defendant.

Case No. 3:17–cv–00066

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Charlottesville Division.

Filed February 14, 2018

Eric Gregory Dunn, Richmond, VA, Robin Jennifer Leiter–White, Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, Charlottesville, VA, for Plaintiffs.

John David McGavin, Martin Schubert, Bancroft, McGavin, Horvath, & Judkins, PC, Fairfax, VA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

NORMAN K. MOON, SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

In this housing discrimination case, a mother and son contend that an apartment complex illegally failed to accommodate the son's disability when considering his rental application. The son had a misdemeanor conviction for indecent exposure, and the apartment complex denied his application allegedly for that reason alone. The son then asserted his mental illness caused the act resulting in his conviction. On that basis and as a proposed reasonable accommodation for his disability, he and his mother asked the apartment complex to reconsider the application without reference to the conviction. The apartment complex declined, and this lawsuit resulted.

The apartment complex has moved to dismiss. Its theory is that the Fair Housing Act's (FHA) protections against disability discrimination categorically do not apply to those convicted of crimes. In other words, it posits that a housing provider may issue blanket denials of housing to those with convictions, regardless of an applicant's disability status, and even if the criminal conduct derived from the applicant's disability. This theory is mistaken. While the FHA does not always require accommodations for a conviction allegedly caused by a disability (and it indeed never requires an accommodation for those convicted of certain drug crimes), the facts alleged here fall into neither of those categories. Because the complaint states a claim for failure to accommodate under the FHA, the motion to dismiss will be denied.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

To determine whether a complaint states a legal claim, the Court must accept as true all well-pled allegations, draw reasonable inferences in favor of the plaintiff, disregard the complaint's legal conclusions and arguments, and ensure the plaintiff offers more than a formulaic recitation of the elements. See generally Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) ; Ashcroft v. Iqbal , 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009).

FACTS AS ALLEGED

Plaintiff Annette Simmons lives at Pine Ridge Apartments in Louisa, Virginia. (Complaint ¶ 1.1). Pine Ridge is managed by Defendant T.M. Associates Management, Inc. ("Defendant"). (Id. ¶ 1.2). In 2016, Ms. Simmons requested that her son, co-plaintiff Derek Simmons, join her apartment as a resident, but Pine Ridge denied his application in 2016 based on a misdemeanor conviction earlier that year. (Id. ¶¶ 1.2–1.3). The conviction stemmed from an incident where, due to a mental health condition known as schizoaffective disorder

, Derek had removed his clothing in public. (Id. ¶¶ 1.3, 3.3). Specifically, during a period Derek was not on his medication, he undressed himself in the street and was arrested, charged, and pled guilty to indecent exposure. (Id. ¶ 3.4).

Derek subsequently received treatment for his condition at a psychiatric hospital and was released in October 2016. (Complaint ¶¶ 1.3–1.4). He continues to receive treatment and "has the ability to live successfully in a community environment." (Id. ¶ 1.4). He has not had any "similar incidents of erratic or disorderly behavior," nor is he likely to. (Id. ).

In May 2017, Annette asked Pine Ridge to consider Derek's application "without regard to his misdemeanor conviction, as a reasonable accommodation for Derek's disability." (Complaint ¶ 1.5). Pine Ridge refused and stated that reasonable accommodations were not available for Derek because he was not a tenant. (Id. ¶¶ 1.6, 3.6). The Simmonses allege that, but for the conviction, Derek's application would have been accepted. (Id. ¶ 1.7).

After his application was denied, Derek visited his mother's apartment and commonly stayed overnight there. (Complaint ¶ 1.8). In response, Pine Ridge issued a letter in June 2017 banning Derek from the property. (Id. ). The Simmonses contend that Pine Ridge's refusal to consider Derek's application without his conviction is unlawful housing discrimination prohibited by both federal and state housing discrimination laws. (Id. ¶ 1.9). The parties have mentioned in passing but not briefed the state law issues, so this opinion addresses only the FHA.

ANALYSIS

"The FHA, enacted pursuant to United States policy to provide for fair housing throughout the United States, makes it unlawful, inter alia , to discriminate in the sale or rental of housing or otherwise to make housing unavailable to a buyer or renter because of that buyer's or renter's handicap or the handicap of certain persons associated with the buyer or renter." Bryant Woods Inn, Inc. v. Howard Cty., Md. , 124 F.3d 597, 602–03 (4th Cir. 1997) (citing 42 U.S.C. §§ 3601, 3604(f) ). The statute requires an accommodation for covered persons if the accommodation "is (1) reasonable and (2) necessary (3) to afford handicapped persons equal opportunity to use and enjoy housing." Id. at 603. A reasonable accommodation does not require "changes, adjustments, or modifications to existing programs that would be substantial, or that would constitute fundamental alterations in the nature of the program." Id. at 604. The "necessary" element "has attributes of a causation requirement; it demands demonstration of a direct linkage between the proposed accommodation and the 'equal opportunity' to be provided." Id. The accommodation must provide "direct amelioration of a disability's effect." Id.

I. Asserted Grounds for Housing Denial and Refusal to Accommodate

Defendant argues that Derek's conviction insulates it from any housing discrimination claim as a matter of law. The Court disagrees.

A. The law sometimes requires accommodating an applicant with convictions

Defendant contends that protections of the FHA do not extend to criminal convictions, whatever their nexus to a claimant's disability. To support this argument, it relies on a case from the Eastern District of North Carolina, Evans v. UDR Inc. , 644 F.Supp.2d 675 (2009), holding that the FHA does not require accommodations for disability-induced criminal actions. The Court finds Evans unpersuasive.

The plaintiff in Evans was denied housing because of a prior misdemeanor conviction for simple assault; the apartment had a policy reserving its right to deny applicants convicted of crimes posing a risk of injury to others. Id. at 678 & nn.4, 6. The plaintiff, like the plaintiffs here, retorted that the conviction "was a result of" the applicant's disabilities and unsuccessfully requested an exception to the policy as a reasonable accommodation. Id. at 678.

The district court concluded that accommodating one's criminal history is not the same as accommodating one's mental disability

, because a criminal record "is not the sort of 'practical impact' of a disability" with which the FHA's prohibition on disability discrimination was concerned. Evans , 644 F.Supp.2d at 684. Specifically, the court asserted that legislative history supported the conclusion that "the types of stereotypes Congress was concerned with" do not include "the criminal actions of people with mental disability where such disabilities are an underlying cause of a crime." Id. Thus, the court thought that:

[w]here an individual suffers from a mental disability

that is related to conduct that results in a criminal conviction, the casual connection between the mental disability and the criminal conviction is insufficient for purposes of the FHA to require a landlord to attempt an accommodation from a criminal history rental policy based on that person's disability.

Id. at 685.

While Evans ' conclusion supports Defendant's position, the Court does not find its reasoning persuasive. Its central discussion relies only on legislative history and an unsupported assertion that the "types of stereotypes Congress was concerned with [eliminating about those with disabilities] do not include concerns related to the criminal actions of people with mental disabilities

where such disabilities are an underlying cause of the crime." Evans , 644 F.Supp.2d at 684–85. But that runs headlong into Congress's effort to "repudiate[ ] the use of stereotypes and ignorance" and reliance on "[g]eneralized perceptions about disabilities and unfounded speculations about threats to safety." Id. at 684. Moreover, Evans proclaims that the FHA does not bar landlords from denying a disabled applicant based on a criminal record, id. at 681, but that abstract framing is a red herring—the issue is whether the landlord may do so when the disability allegedly caused the conviction. The court reasoned that "accommodating ... criminal history is not equivalent to accommodating her mental disability," id. at 683–84, but the point here is that the two (allegedly) go hand-in-hand. Plaintiffs are not seeking an accommodation of a conviction , but rather an accommodation of a disability by mitigating its effects (i.e. , disregarding the conviction).

The text of the FHA undercuts Defendant's position and Evans. The FHA states that its protections do not apply to any decision denying housing because of an applicant's drug distribution or drug manufacturing conviction. 42 U.S.C. § 3607(b)(4). The interpretative canon of expressio unius provides that "when Congress includes one possibility in a statute, it excludes another by implication." Marx v. Gen. Revenue Corp. , 568 U.S. 371, 392, 133 S.Ct. 1166, 185 L.Ed.2d 242 (2013). Accordingly, the specific carveout for drug convictions provides a strong inference that Congress "presumed the Act could sometimes require housing providers to...