Right before the pandemic started and we weren’t compelled to quarantine and stay closer to our neighbors for longer period of time, a Federal Court made a decision that makes it’s harder for cooperative boards to stay out of neighbor-neighbor disputes without risk of liability.
The case involved Kings Park Manor, a rental building owner, and complainant, Donahue Francis. The bickering between Francis and his neighbor Raymond Endres was unbelievable. The Court described it as a “brazen and relentless campaign of racial harassment, abuse, and threats.” In the parties’ words, according to the Court, “Francis heard Endres say ‘Jews, fucking Jews,’ while standing in front of their apartments Endres then called Francis, who is black, a ‘fucking nigger’. It got worse and worse and the building owner decided to stay out of it and directed management (who also ended up sued) to do the same.
The lawsuit was in Federal Court and ended up on appeal where the Second Circuit in Manhattan issued a decision which should make coop boards think twice before deciding not to intervene in disputes between shareholders; or at least ones that rise to the level of the Francis-Endres dispute. If a coop board decides to stay out despite the Court decision it ought to create a proper and thorough record vetted by counsel so that it can defend it if sued.
In the Kings Park case the Court ruled that the Fair Housing Act requires a landlord (like a coop) to take racial harassment as seriously as it takes other tenant misconduct, and that it constitutes intentional discrimination for a landlord to selectively ignore misconduct. The court held that the act covers discrimination not only when renting an apartment to a tenant but also extends to the relationship after the tenant moves in. Thus, a landlord is not allowed to harass or otherwise discriminate against a tenant because of race by failing to address complaints. The court reasoned that the landlord had remedies, such as terminating the lease, and it should have taken action rather sticking its head in the sand.
Read the decision here.
