Sofia Mietus v Fahkreha Saleh
Oct 11, 2007OUTCOME: Our Client won/eviction vacted
The Defendant's were a family of Arabian descent living in an apartment, and the landlord who had purchased the building alledly began making several racist remarks about their heritage, and frequently ... complained about the amount of children they had. Eventually Defendants, without an attorney, complained to the Illinois Department of Human Rights about their treatment. When the landlord found out about the complaint, she allegedly retaliated by unfairly raising their rent, and also made it difficult for them to physically pay the rent to her. In other words she made herself unavailable, in our opinion. This allegedly formed the Plaintiff's pretext to file an eviction proceedings against the family. When the mother of the family showed up to court, without an attorney, to make her case, the judge ordered that her family was to be evicted from their home before the end of the month. That same day I was contacted by the mother of the family, who was of course very worried. I was able to file amotion to reconsider with the court, based on the fact that the Plaintiff had accepted partial payment of the rent after filing the suit (thereby re-instating the families month to month lease), and alleging the affirmative defense of retaliation in violation of the Fair Hosuing Act, and the Illinois Human Rights Act, as the eviction suit was filed soon after the landlord had recieved notice of the families discrimination compliants. The court vacated the order of eviction, and later the suit was dismissed with prejudice. The family was not evicted from their home, and is currently suing the landlord for violation of th Illinois Human Rights Act.
