Village of Bellwood v. Gorey & Associates
| Decision Date | 23 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86 C 6845.,86 C 6845. |
| Citation | 664 F. Supp. 320 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
| Parties | VILLAGE OF BELLWOOD, an Illinois municipal corporation; Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities, an Illinois not-for-profit corporation; Dianne Prince; Carolyn Lockett; Jerry Lockett; Fred Benford; Pamela Landry; Tracey Carter; and Alfred Allen, Plaintiffs, v. GOREY & ASSOCIATES, William Gorey, Betty Trela, and Warren Schroeder, Defendants. |
F. Willis Caruso, Elizabeth Shuman-Moore, Leadership Counsel, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs.
Kevin R. Sido, Philip King, Hinshaw Culbertson Moelmann Hoban & Fuller, Nicholas M. Spina, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.
This controversy arises out of a dispute regarding the availability of housing in several of Chicago's western suburbs. The nine plaintiffs alleged that the various defendants engaged in racial steering1 in violation of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, 42 U.S.C. § 36042 and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1982.3 Neither of the corporate plaintiffs is a stranger to these types of actions. See Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979); Village of Bellwood v. Dwayne Realty, 482 F.Supp. 1321 (N.D.Ill.1979). Besides the two corporate plaintiffs, seven individuals have brought suit in their capacities as testers.4
The defendants have moved to dismiss with prejudice the individual plaintiffs from the suit for failure to state a claim under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). The defendants claim that all seven testers failed to allege proper standing under 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604 and 3612.5 Furthermore, the defendants allege that three of the individual plaintiffs, Dianne Prince, Carolyn Lockett and Jerry Lockett, are time-barred by the statute of limitations from seeking relief under 42 U.S.C. § 3612(a). For the reasons described below, we grant in part and deny in part defendants' motion to dismiss.
Plaintiff Village of Bellwood ("Bellwood") is an Illinois municipal corporation and a western suburb of Chicago, with a population of approximately twenty thousand. Plaintiff, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities ("Leadership Council"), is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation engaged in the promotion of "open housing" in the Chicago metropolitan area. The Leadership Council provides various services to minority group members who seek housing in the area. One of its programs involves the investigation of and assistance with housing discrimination complaints. See Dwayne Realty, 482 F.Supp. 1321, 1323.
The seven remaining plaintiffs, Dianne Prince, Carolyn Lockett, Jerry Lockett, Fred Benford, Pamela Landry, Tracey Carter, and Alfred Allen, are black testers employed by the Leadership Council. All of these testers are Illinois residents. One other black tester and seven white testers named in the complaint are not parties to this action.
The defendant Century 21 Gorey & Associates ("Gorey & Associates"),6 has its offices in Westchester, Illinois, a community immediately south of Bellwood. That business is operated in some capacity7 by the defendant William Gorey, a real estate broker licensed in Illinois. The two other defendants, Betty Trela ("Trela") and Warren Schroeder ("Schroeder"), are real estate salespeople employed by Gorey & Associates and licensed in Illinois.
This suit arose over a series of business conversations and dealings beginning in August of 1985 and continuing through April, 1986. The tester plaintiffs were employed by the Leadership Council to determine whether housing discrimination existed in certain suburbs west of Chicago. On or around August 10, 1985, two white testers, David Kaczynski and Gail Patrik, spoke with defendant Trela at the offices of defendant Gorey & Associates.9 They asked Trela about the availability of homes in Chicago's western suburbs in the $80,000 price range, expressing a preference for the community of Bellwood. The plaintiffs allege that Trela told the couple that they did not want to reside in Bellwood; she showed them two houses in Berkeley, a community with a very low black population, and one house in Broadview, a community with a black population smaller than Bellwood.
Two more white testers, Jack and Donna Bishop, visited the realtor's office on or about October 19, 1985, and also spoke to Trela. They said that they were interested in homes in Bellwood in the $70,000 price range. Saying that such housing was available, Trela asked the Bishops whether they "would be bothered by living around blacks." Complaint, para. 12. While the Bishops informed Trela that this was no problem, Trela still attempted to sell them a house in Broadview. The Bishops met with Trela again around November 3, 1985, and she showed them two residences in Westchester, a community similar to Berkeley in that few blacks reside there.
Trela was visited by black tester and plaintiff Dianne Prince around October 26, 1985. She requested information on $70,000-$80,000 residences in the mostly white community of Westchester. The plaintiffs allege that Trela urged Prince to consider two houses in Broadview instead, a community, they contend, that has a larger black population than Westchester. On approximately November 12, 1985, Prince again met with Trela; this time she was accompanied by David Whittaker, a black tester who is not a party to this action. Trela showed them one home in Broadview, and suggested that they also consider another residence in that community.
Plaintiffs Carolyn and Jerry Lockett, both black testers, visited Gorey & Associates on approximately March 1, 1986. They asked defendant Schroeder about Westchester residences in the $80,000-$90,000 price range. In addition to his attempts to discourage these plaintiffs from considering a Westchester home, the plaintiffs alleged that Schroeder showed them houses in both Bellwood and Broadview.
Diana Carpenter, a white tester, spoke with defendant Gorey at his offices on or about April 7, 1986, inquiring about homes in Bellwood, Hillside, and Westchester in the $60,000-$70,000 price range. Gorey escorted her to three Westchester residences and one Hillside residence, both communities where few blacks live. Carpenter was not shown any homes in Bellwood.
On approximately April 11, 1986, black testers and plaintiffs Fred Benford and Pamela Landry spoke to defendant Schroeder about homes in the $72,000-$82,000 price range in the communities of Westchester, Broadview, and Bellwood. Schroeder informed Benford and Landry that such housing was available in Bellwood (he allegedly showed them two houses in that suburb), but not in Westchester. The plaintiffs also allege that Schroeder showed them one Hillside home.
Victor and Sherry Gomez, two white testers, spoke with Trela around April 12, 1986, seeking information on the availability of housing in Bellwood, Hillside and Westchester in the $75,000 price range. Trela escorted the couple to homes in Berkeley, Westchester and Hillside, urging them to reside in those suburbs.
Approximately one week later, plaintiffs and black testers Alfred Allen and Tracey Carter asked Schroeder about Westchester residences in the $80,000-$90,000 range. Schroeder allegedly told the couple that a Westchester home in which they had expressed interest had been sold two days earlier; he took no further action to locate a house in Westchester for the plaintiffs. He suggested two Bellwood residences and one Berkeley residence. The listing prices for the two Bellwood homes were considerably lower than the price range quoted by the plaintiffs. Schroeder showed them one house in Bellwood and one house in Berkeley.
The plaintiffs claim that these events violated their statutory rights under 42 U.S.C. § 3604(a) to be provided with truthful information about housing availability. They also claim that the racial steering allegedly practiced by the defendants violated 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604 and 1982. Furthermore, the plaintiffs charge the defendants with willful and wanton disregard of those statutory rights. In its individual capacity, the Leadership Council claims that the actions of the defendants have substantially impaired both its efforts to eliminate housing discrimination and its servicing of minority homeseekers. Bellwood, in its individual capacity, claims that its racial composition has been injured by the defendants' manipulation of the housing market.
Standing is a basic jurisdictional question, with its foundations in the requirement of Article III of the Constitution that all litigated federal matters involve a Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 498, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2205, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). The court must decided whether the plaintiff has sufficiently alleged a personal interest in the determination of the dispute which justifies the exercise of federal jurisdiction. Id.; see also Williams v. Adams, 625 F.Supp. 256, 259 (N.D.Ill.1985). To satisfy this requirement, the plaintiff must allege that he suffered a "distinct and palpable" injury at the hands of the defendant. Duke Power Co. v. Caroline Environmental Study Group, Inc., 438 U.S. 59, 72, 98 S.Ct. 2620, 2630, 57 L.Ed.2d 595 (1978); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 501, 95 S.Ct. at 2206.
The defendants have not challenged the standing of either Bellwood or the Leadership Council. The courts have previously addressed the standing of these two entities in their general capacities as municipal corporation and community organization, respectively. The United States Supreme Court favorably decided the issue of a community's standing to sue under the Fair Housing Act § 3604 in Gladstone, Realtors. See 441 U.S. 91, 109-11, 99 S.Ct. at 1612-13.10 Furthermore, an organization such as the Leadership Council has standing to sue if the alleged steering practices "perceptively impaired" the organization's ability to...
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