Treece v. Perrier Condo. Owners Ass'n, Inc.

• Decision Date: 28 October 2021
• Docket Number: CIVIL ACTION NO. 17-10153
• Citation: 569 F.Supp.3d 347
• Parties: Dwayne TREECE, et al., Plaintiffs v. PERRIER CONDOMINIUM OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Defendants
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

569 F.Supp.3d 347

Dwayne TREECE, et al., Plaintiffs

v.PERRIER CONDOMINIUM OWNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Defendants

CIVIL ACTION NO. 17-10153

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

Signed October 28, 2021

Filed October 29, 2021

John Nelson Adcock, Law Office of John N. Adcock, Cashauna Hill, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, Elizabeth JoAnne Owen, Peter Franklin Theis, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiffs Dwayne Treece, Phallon Treece.

Pierre V. Miller, II, Patrick Hannon Patrick, Patrick Miller, LLC, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiff Clifford Harlan.

Karen M. Dicke, Lewis Brisbois New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, Lauren Fajoni Bartlett, Loeb Law Firm, Mandeville, LA, for Defendants Perrier Condominium Owners Association, Inc., Katherine E. Acuff, Christopher J. Jablonowski, Hanna M. Haile.

SECTION: "E" (3)

ORDER AND REASONS

SUSIE MORGAN, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Before the Court is a motion to revise or modify partial summary judgment¹ by Plaintiffs Dwayne Treece, Phallon Treece, and Clifford Harlan (collectively, "Plaintiffs"). Defendants Perrier Condominium Owners Association Inc. (the "PCOA"), Katherine E. Acuff, Christopher J. Jablonowski, and Hanna M Haile (collectively, "Defendants") have filed an opposition.² Plaintiffs have filed a reply.³ Also before the Court is Defendants’ motion to enter final judgment.⁴ Plaintiffs have filed an opposition.⁵ Defendants have filed a reply.⁶

The Court has considered the briefs, the record, and the applicable law, and now issues its rulings.

BACKGROUND

I. Underlying Facts

Plaintiffs Dwayne and Phallon Treece allege that in 2017 they sought to rent a unit in the Perrier Condominium for themselves and their four young children.⁷ The Treeces first contacted Defendant Hanna Haile about renting her unit at the Perrier Condominium.⁸ Ultimately, they did not rent from Haile, allegedly because she refused to rent them her apartment due to their having young children.⁹

In August 2017, Plaintiffs Dwayne and Phallon Treece, along with their four children, rented a different unit at the Perrier Condominium owned by Plaintiff Clifford Harlan.¹⁰ Defendants Katherine Acuff, Christopher Jablonowski, and Haile individually own the other three units.¹¹ The four unit owners are the sole members of the Perrier Condominium Owner's Association (PCOA), which administers the Perrier Condominium regime.¹² The Treeces allege that, after they moved into their unit, the Defendants took various actions to harass and attempt to evict them based on their having four children who lived in the unit.¹³

The Court previously found the undisputed facts material to motions for summary judgment filed by the Plaintiffs¹⁴ and Defendants¹⁵ to be, in relevant part:

The Perrier Condominium contains four units. Plaintiff Harlan and Defendants Acuff, Jablonowski, and Haile each own one of the units. The four unit owners are the sole members of the Perrier Condominium Owners Association (PCOA), which governs the Perrier Condominium regime. In August 2017, the Treeces, a family of six, rented Unit 6036 from Plaintiff Harlan.

The Perrier Condominium is subject to a facially neutral use and occupancy rule stated in the Condominium Declaration. The occupancy rule states "no unit shall be occupied, even for permitted use, by more than one (1) person making such Unit his or her residence for each two hundred fifty (250) square feet of floor area within the Unit." The occupancy rule allows up to five people to occupy Unit 6036. The Treece family exceeds the occupancy limit as applied to Unit 6036.

The PCOA, in part, justifies the occupancy limit as necessary to reduce wear and tear on the Perrier Condominium and its infrastructure. PCOA governing documents empower the PCOA to make repairs to units at the expense of the unit owners. The PCOA has not computed the maximum number of residents that the Perrier Condominium's infrastructure can handle.

The PCOA also justifies its occupancy rule based on "quality of life" concerns such as street parking, backyard space, garbage can management, laundry use, and noise. The Perrier Condominium does not have a parking lot. The Perrier Condominium has four garbage cans. The PCOA rules include a rule governing noise and nuisance. Harlan's unit could be modified to ameliorate noise concerns.

On August 16, 2017, Harlan informed Acuff, Jablonowski, and Haile by email that he had rented his unit to the Treeces. Acuff, whose unit abuts Harlan's unit, responded by email asking, "How long is their lease? And how many children do they have? They are moving in as I write this and I am listening to a kid screaming through the wall and running all over the floors." Haile responded to Harlan's email and stated, "[t]his renter, Dwayne, had actually contact me in regards to renting my unit the very first week I posted it. He came to look with his youngest child. He is a nice guy but I decided the condo was not the best fit as they have 3 small children." Acuff responded by stating "this could be a serious issue. Reasonable limitations on occupancy are 2 people per bedroom. I don't even know that the systems in this building can handle that many people in one unit."

The next day, Acuff emailed the unit owners and stated she had conducted a social media search confirming the Treeces had three children, maybe four. Acuff then texted Haile and Jablonowski a picture of the Treeces’ stroller parked in a common area of the Perrier Condominium. Haile responded, "This is completely unacceptable, they will not be storing strollers like that." Soon after, Acuff shared with Haile that she had suggested to Harlan he could evict the Treeces for lying on their application by not listing all of their children. Haile said Harlan needed to get this "sorted out" and that he should be able to break the lease. An hour later, Acuff texted Harlan and Haile that "the bylaws also require 250 per square feet, which means you need 1500" square feet to accommodate six people.

The next day, on August 18, 2017, Acuff texted Haile that she was going to propose a change to the bylaws to limit occupancy to three people per unit. Five days later, on August 21, 2017, Acuff emailed the other three owners to say she would like to have a condominium association meeting "to discuss possible amendments to our bylaws in light of recent events. In that same vein, I think we need to have our bylaws reviewed and updated by an attorney." Acuff also emailed Harlan suggesting various bases on which Harlan could seek to terminate the Treeces’ lease, including violations of noise restrictions and the occupancy limit. Harlan wrote back that "the fair housing act says one can't be discriminated against based on family status," and he was concerned evicting a family for failing to list their minor children on the lease might violate the Fair Housing Act. Acuff responded on August 21, 2017, stating "[y]ou can't discriminate on family status, but you can reasonably restrict occupancy levels."

On August 22, 2017, Harlan delivered to Dwayne and Phallon Treece a "Five (5) Day Notice to Vacate Premises." The notice stated,

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that you have violated the following terms in your lease agreement dated August 16, 2017: Section 4: USE OF PREMISES Tenants have violated the lease agreement by occupying the premises with six (6) individuals, rather than the two (2) individuals disclosed and named on the lease agreement. Six (6) occupants is over the Landlord's Condominium Owners’ Association Use and Occupancy Restrictions which state "The Units are also restricted to occupancy by no more than one (1) person per two hundred fifty (250) square feet of Unit floor space."

That same evening the unit owners met and by a vote of three in favor and one (Harlan) against, voted to change the occupancy restriction to read, "The Units are also restricted to occupancy by no more than one (1) person per FOUR HUNDRED (400) square feet of Unit floor space" (the "400 square foot rule"). The PCOA and its members have not voted to rescind the 400 square foot occupancy standard. The PCOA submitted the 400 square foot occupancy restriction to an attorney for "review, advice, approval, and implementation." The amendment was never recorded on the public record.

Despite the notice to vacate, Harlan never evicted the Treeces, and on August 31, 2017, Acuff emailed Harlan stating, "If this isn't resolved in a timely manner, we, as an association, can also levy penalties for failure to observe the terms and conditions of the rules. Any expenses we incur as an association can also be assessed against the defaulting owner." On September 8, 2017, Harlan informed the condominium association members "I feel that I am being forced to evict by the other members of the condo association."

The other PCOA members then decided to pursue an eviction themselves. Defendant Haile emailed the other PCOA members, "I believe we need to move on with an eviction ASAP. If they sue us, they will sue us. But at least they will be out .... I believe time for nice is over. It's been over." The PCOA members held a special meeting on September 29, 2017. The owners voted, over Harlan's objection, to (1) impose a fine of $100 per day against Harlan beginning Monday, October 2, 2017 for his continued lease of his unit to Dwayne and Phallon and their family and violating the occupancy limit; (2) pursue Dwayne and Phallon's eviction; (3) assess legal fees associated with such eviction against Harlan if the eviction were successful; (4) retain the professional services of an attorney to represent the Association; and (5) install a camera in the Perrier Condominium's common stairwell.¹⁶

II. Claims the Parties Agree Have Been Addressed on Summary Judgment

Dwayne and Phallon Treece sued Haile for "discriminat[ing] against Dwayne and Phallon Treece by printing and publishing statements with respect to the sale or rental of Units within the Perrier Street Condominiums that...