Fair Housing for All

Eboni SternJohn and Julius SternJohn, an African-American couple, lived in a racially and culturally diverse apartment complex.  According to the complaint they filed in federal court, the defendants terminated the rental leases for the SternJohn family and other African-American residents shortly after the defendants bought the complex.  The residents targeted by the new landlord had lived in the complex for years.  The SternJohns and other African-American residents also alleged that the new landlord failed to perform needed repairs for them, such as fixing the heating system in their apartments during the winter.

The SternJohns charged that, after they reported this improper conduct to the landlord and enforcement authorities, the defendants pursued a campaign of harassment – including filing groundless eviction actions, physical intimidation, and other reprisals.

After over two years of litigation – and a day before trial – the defendants entered a confession of judgment for $1,050,000.  In connection with that judgment for the SternJohn family, the Court imposed a five-year Consent Decree that requires the defendants, among other things, to do the following at their own expense:

• to use an independent management company to operate the many properties owned by the defendants;
• to market affirmatively to persons other than White, non-Latinos;
• to be tested periodically for fair housing violations; and
• to submit quarterly reports and affidavits to the Court’s designated monitoring agency and to the SternJohns’ attorneys proving that the defendants are fully complying with the fair housing laws.

In the face of the defendants’ initial non-compliance with the Consent Decree, the SternJohn family obtained Court orders extending the Consent Decree for two additional years, imposing monetary sanctions, and awarding attorney’s fees and costs.

Based on the evidence developed in the SternJohns’ case, the U.S. Department of Justice subsequently prosecuted a pattern-and-practice case on behalf of other aggrieved residents and former residents of properties where racial discrimination reportedly occurred.

Justin Cummins and Brendan Cummins, of Miller O’Brien Cummins, PLLP, represented the SternJohns.