A federal appeals court has revived a South Florida woman’s lawsuit alleging a property manager violated the federal Fair Housing Act by evicting her after she stopped having coerced sex with him.
It was the first time 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases arising in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, had ruled on whether the housing law allows sexual harassment claims, although three other federal appeals courts have upheld such claims under similar circumstances.
According to Judge Jill Pryor’s opinion, the manager of the Rose Bush Apartments in Jupiter gave the plaintiff breaks on her rent in exchange for sexual favors, also installing a surveillance camera to monitor her comings and goings. When she tired of the controlling behavior and stopped having sex with him, he evicted her.
In a unanimous ruling published Friday, the court cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent involving Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on class-based factors including sex using language identical to the Fair Housing Act, or FHA.
“We have consistently held that sexual harassment constitutes impermissible sex discrimination under Title VII where, but for the fact of the claimant’s sex, she would not have been the object of harassment,” the appeals court said in an opinion written by Judge Pryor.
“Thus, we hold that sexual harassment — both hostile housing environment and quid pro quo sexual harassment — is actionable under the FHA, provided the plaintiff demonstrates that she would not have been harassed but for her sex.”
The decision returns the case to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for trial on its merits.
The FHA — and a Florida law using essentially identical language — bars class-based discrimination in rental housing; bars using discriminatory notices in advertising for rental housing; and bars interference, coercion, or intimidation for exercising fair-housing rights, Pryor wrote.
The post In FL case, U.S. appeals court reinstates lawsuit alleging sexual harassment over housing eviction first appeared on Daily Florida Press.
from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/in-fl-case-u-s-appeals-court-reinstates-lawsuit-alleging-sexual-harassment-over-housing-eviction/
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