Kujawa Team Secures a Not Guilty Verdict on Behalf of an Illinois Public Housing Authority
On April 8, 2024, attorneys Mike Kujawa, Erika Baldonado, Jonathon Sommerfeld, and Emily Ottesen secured a Not Guilty verdict on behalf of an Illinois Public Housing Authority in a long-running Federal Class Action lawsuit. The class consisted of all residents of a building that was owned/managed by the Housing Authority between January of 2011 and April of 2019. Plaintiffs brought several counts against the Housing Authority related to its handling of a bed bug infestation within the building. Claims consisted of section 1983 constitutional rights violations under the State Created Danger doctrine, violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract.?
?Prior to trial, the Housing Authority won summary judgment against Plaintiffs on all counts except breach of contract. The Housing Authority also won a motion to decertify the class, resulting in the class being reduced to a Rule 23(c)(4) Issue only class regarding the Housing Authority's alleged breach of the form HUD lease utilized by the Housing Authority. As a result, had Plaintiffs succeeded at trial on the class wide issue, each individual class member would have been required to prove their own compliance with the lease and their own damages in order to recover.?
?The trial was held from April 1-8, 2024?on the issue of the Housing Authority's alleged breach. After two days of deliberation, the jury returned a Not Guilty verdict.?
?This case, which was filed in 2013, has been watched closely by Public Housing Authorities across the nation as it involved a form lease released by HUD and utilized in some capacity for public housing nationwide. Plaintiffs' claims also brought a first of its kind State Created Danger theory related to bed bugs in public housing, which was defeated prior to trial through summary judgment. The pending litigation was one of the subjects of a 2022 panel presentation at the Illinois Association of Housing Authorities conference, where several attorneys at our firm had the opportunity to present on a variety of prevalent legal issues facing housing authorities.
