Figgs v. Boston Housing Authority (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-141-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-11532 TRENEA FIGGS vs. BOSTON HOUSING AUTHORITY. Suffolk. April 8, 2014. – August 18, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Gants, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ.[1] Boston Housing Authority. Housing Authority. Municipal Corporations, Housing authority. Practice, Civil, Action in nature of certiorari. Administrative Law, Hearing, Substantial evidence. Evidence, Hearsay. Civil action commenced in the Boston Division of the Housing Court Department on August 24, 2012. The case was heard by Jeffrey M. Winik, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. Michael J. Louis & Angela Marcolina for the defendant. Jeremy T. Robin for the plaintff. The following submitted briefs for amicus curiae: Jeffrey C. Turk for Greater Boston Real Estate Board & another. James M. McCreight, Alex Munevar, & Quinten Steenhuis for Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless & others. Esme Caramello, Deena Greenberg, & Melanie Zuch for Charles Hamilton Houston Institute & another. SPINA, J. Trenea Figgs is a participant in the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly referred to as “Section 8,” administered by the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1437f (2012) and implementing HUD regulations.[2] On November 22, 2011, the BHA notified Figgs of its intent to terminate her participation in the Section 8 program due to allegations of serious or repeated violations of her lease. Several weeks earlier, Boston police officers had executed a search warrant for Figgs’s apartment in connection with a criminal investigation of her brother, Damon Nunes, and had discovered, among other things, two plastic bags of marijuana, a .380 caliber Ruger pistol, and five rounds of ammunition. Figgs appealed the proposed termination. Following an informal hearing on February 22, 2012, a hearing officer, by decision dated August 6, 2012, upheld the termination of Figgs’s Section 8 housing subsidy. On August 24, 2012, Figgs filed a verified complaint in the Housing Court for injunctive and declaratory relief. She sought to enjoin the BHA from terminating her Section 8 housing subsidy on the ground that the informal hearing failed to satisfy her procedural due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and she sought a declaration that the bases for her termination were insufficient. In response, the BHA filed a […]