Judge: City Must Pay

A Superior Court judge Thursday ordered the city to pay for an independent reinspection of a lead-contaminated West River home that the city had cleared as safe — and to pay the bill for displaced first-floor tenants to remain in a hotel room.

Judge Anthony Avallone issued that ruling as he continued case that has been working its way throughthe third-floor housing court room of 121 Elm St. for the past month and a half.

The case started out as a motion by the landlord, Abdullah Soliman, to evict the tenants, Maajid Muhammad and his wife and four young children, from their ground floor apartment at 75 Sherman Ave. for alleged non-payment of rent. Muhammad countered that he had stopped paying rent because the property presented an unabated health hazard to his 1‑year-old child, Malik, who tested as having an elevated blood lead level of 11 micrograms per deciliter (mg/dL) back in December 2017.

The federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) refer to any child blood lead level above 5 mg/dL as ​“elevated,” or dangerously high and presenting an undue risk for the development of long-term mental and behavioral disabilities.

Over the course of multiple court hearings and continuances, the tenants and their lawyers have argued that both the landlord and the city failed to protect the child’s health. Led by New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) Attorney Amy Marx, the defense has argued that the city did not act promptly in conducting its lead inspection of the property; that the landlord failed to implement a thorough and complete lead abatement of the property; and that the city unduly endangered the family by signing off on incomplete abatement work and giving the family the go ahead to move back into a potentially dangerous property.

Throughout the hearings, the landlord’s lawyer and subpoenaed representatives from the city have argued that the landlord has followed the letter of the law in implementing an adequate abatement and in relocating the tenants to an area hotel at his own cost. The city has stood by the thoroughness of its post-abatement inspection and by the merits of its post-abatement approval.

Since the landlord decided to withdraw his attempted eviction earlier in May, Thursday’s hearing was ostensibly about the proper disbursement of the $1,200 rent for April that Muhammad had paid to the court to hold until the resolution of the case.

But based on the explanation that Judge Avallone gave on Thursday for why he decided to continue the case yet again, the court was unconvinced that the city’s post-abatement inspection and sign off at the end of May was satisfactory.

Avallone ordered that, between now and the next court date, which has not yet been set, the first-floor unit of 75 Sherman Ave. must be reinspected by a lead inspector independent of the city. Avallone said that independent inspection agency could be the state’s Department of Health. However, if the state is unable to conduct the reinspection, then the plaintiff and defendants must put together a list of five eligible, independent lead inspection agencies and pick one from that list. If the parties cannot agree on which agency to choose, then the court will decide.

“The city is ordered to pay for this reinspection,” Avallone said.

The judge also ruled that the tenants must remain in their current location at the New Haven Village Suites in Long Wharf until the next court date. He said the city must pay the continued hotel bills for Muhammad and his family’s stay on Long Wharf.

Finally, the judge ruled that the two parties must agree as to the regulations and standards that will apply to the independent reinspection. If the parties cannot agree on these standards, the judge said, then the court will decide.

The judge reiterated that the purpose and intent of the court was to determine the habitability of the property, and that that determination will inform how the April rent money is disbursed between the landlord and the tenants.

Implicit to the ruling, however, was a wariness over the city’s lead post-abatement inspection and sign off.

After the hearing, Attorney Marx expressed surprise and disappointment that the city was sticking by its May 18 assertion that the lead abatement work at the property was satisfactory and complete.

“We can’t understand why a place that looks this bad would be passed,” she said about the current state of the property.

Yesterday afternoon, Marx and NHLAA filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of the upstairs tenants of 75 Sherman Ave., alleging that the city Health Department similarly failed those tenants in its allegedly slow and inadequate response to lead hazards in a property occupied by a child with an elevated blood lead level. That lawsuit will be heard by the housing court later this month.

Helen Li, a legal fellow with Connecticut Legal Services and one of the lawyers supporting the defense of Muhammad and his family, said Thursday’s ruling does not necessarily represent a rebuke of the city by Judge Avallone and its lead inspection protocol. What it does represent, she said, is the court’s determination to bring in an independent party to assess who is telling the truth about the state of the property: the landlord and the Health Department, or the tenants and the defense.

But, she said, the trajectory of this case is remarkably similar to the Guaman case, in which an independent lead inspector was brought in to look at a property that the city lead inspector had signed off. The independent inspector in that case, Li said, determined that the property should not have been approved by the city.

“Lead poisoning regulations are very complex,” she said. But, she said, that does not excuse the city’s allegedly taking too long to conduct inspections, issuing improper lead abatement orders, and signing off on incomplete abatement work.

“Generations and generations will continue to be poisoned if these standards are not followed,” Li said.

Outside of the courtroom, Muhammad asserted that he and his family were continuing to struggle through living in an efficiency hotel room for over six weeks. He said he has been looking at new apartments from Stamford to New Haven to Norwich, but that everywhere he goes, he cannot shake the fear that the new home will also present a lead hazard to his family.

He has been fasting for Ramadan. He said he hopes that the 75 Sherman Ave. property will be fixed and his property safe to move back into in by the end of the holiday eight days from now.

“If anyone of status in this city got lead poisoning,” he said, ​“there would be an uproar. But since it’s regular people, they just don’t care.”

Assistant Corporation Counsel Roderick Williams, who represented the city during today’s court hearing, declined to comment on the judge’s ruling. 

Previous coverage:

• City Sued Over Handling Of Lead Poisonings
• City’s Lead Inspection Goes On Trial
• Eviction Withdrawn On Technicality
• 2nd Child Poisoned; Where’s The City?
• Carpenter With Poisoned Kid Tries A Fix
• High Lead Levels Stall Eviction
• 460 Kids Poisoned By Lead In 2 Years
• Bid-Rigging Claimed In Lead Cleanup
• Judge Orders Total Lead Paint Clean-Up
• Legal Aid Takes City To Task On Lead