Eviction Court

[Deborah Burian]

Won one, delayed one, dismissed one. It's hard not to laugh sometimes in court and today the judge seemed to be trying to make people laugh, maybe it's his form of protection... A very brief summary.

Tenant is an amputee and in wheelchair. He has successfully scored a pro bono attorney, while waiting for case to be called he rolled up to a guy and asked (we're a very friendly state) Landlord is management company and visibly annoyed. Tenant - complains that he is obviously disabled (true) and landlord promised to make accommodations for him to use apartment. Tenant says the only thing landlord has done is 'blast' out a larger bathroom entrance so he can get his wheelchair in. Unfortunately, landlord has not actually re-installed any kind of a bathroom door. Landlord argues that because of "blasting" out the doorway, there is no way to hang a door. Tenant admits to living alone but when has guests, wants privacy for them and to 'do his business' which he hopes he doesn't need to describe. Judge assures him we all get the picture (all too vividly at that point). Judge advised manager that he can think of several ways to put a doorway in and allows the attorney to start to talk about the ADA...

While I'd LOVE to be able to report how this all came out... the management company couldn't show evidence that they were legally entitled to sue on behalf of the owner and the judge postponed the whole thing until this afternoon. I had work to get done.

When I left, tenants were batting .750 and always because the various managers didn't have their paperwork act together.