Novak v. State Parkway Condominium Ass'n

141 F. Supp. 3d 901, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146475, 2015 WL 6560456
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 29, 2015
DocketNo. 13 C 08861
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 141 F. Supp. 3d 901 (Novak v. State Parkway Condominium Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Novak v. State Parkway Condominium Ass'n, 141 F. Supp. 3d 901, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146475, 2015 WL 6560456 (N.D. Ill. 2015).

Opinion

Memorandum Opinion and Order

EDMOND E. CHANG, District Judge

After several false starts, a question long lurking in the background of this housing-discrimination action is now properly before the Court: whether state administrative findings, in this case made by the Illinois Department of Human Rights and affirmed by the Illinois Human Rights Commission, are entitled to preclusive effect in actions brought in federal court under the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq.1 Among the various allegations raised by pro se Plaintiffs Michael and Christina Novak (they are also suing on behalf of their minor daughter T.N.) are two specific claims that were the subject of Illinois administrative proceedings: that the Novaks, who are hearing impaired, were (1) denied real-time transcription services at a condo association hearing in 2010, and (2) subjected to a retaliatory refusal to accommodate their service dóg. The remaining Defendants— the State Parkway Condominium Association; its property management company, Lieberman Management Services; and the building manager, Donna Weber-move for partial summary judgment on these two discrete claims, which -have been the. subject of a discovery stay (and several premature motions) while the administrative proceedings ran their course. Because a final agency order has now been issued and the Novaks have withdrawn an Illinois state-court appeal of that decision, the Court can at last resolve the fate of these two claims. The Court need not, however, directly decide whether administrative issue preclusion can apply in the fair-housing context, because (as explained below), the Court holds that, even assuming issue preclusion can arise from an agency determination, Defendants have failed to show that the Novaks received the judicial-type procedural safeguards required to invoke issue preclusion. For the reasons given below, these claims survive and the motion for partial summary judgment is denied.

I. Background

A. Claims at Issue

The Novaks’ factual allegations in this long-lasting and highly contentious case arise from,- among other things, various disputes about accommodations for the Novaks’ hearing disability and charges of harassment and retaliation. The allegations are wide-ranging and spelled out in detail in the Court’s September 2014 Opinion [R. 99], which granted in part and denied in part Defendants’ motion to dismiss. See Novak v. Levenfeld Pearlstein, 2014 WL 4555581, at *1-3 (N.D.Ill. Sept. 15, 2014) (dismissing conspiracy-theory claims raised against condo association’s law firm and certain state-law claims against remaining Defendants). The present motion concerns only two of the No-vaks’ several claims, and it is to these two discrete issues that the following discussion is limited. Because Defendants seek summary judgment, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the Novaks and all reasonable inferences are drawn in their favor. That said, the material facts are not really in dispute.

The first claim is that State Parkway refused to pay to provide the Novaks with Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services (by which a simulta[904]*904neous transcript is generated, allowing deaf users to follow along with live conversations) for use at a 2010 hearing called by the condo association for an alleged noise violation by the Novaks. R. 242, DSOF ¶ 102; see also Novak, 2014 WL 4555581, at *5-6. The second concerns whether State Parkway refused to accommodate the Novaks’ use of their service dog in retaliation for the Novaks’ filing a 2007 housing-discrimination complaint against the condo association. DSOF ¶ 11; see, also Novak, 2014 WL 4555581, at *5-6..

B. State Administrative Proceedings

Both claims were included in a complaint filed with the Illinois Department of Human Rights on November 8, 2010. See DSOF, Exh. 5, Housing Discrimination Compl. ¶7 (“Respondent denied Complainants’ request for CART and would only agree if Complainants paid for CART. Complainants allege that Respondent has continued to refuse to acknowledge- Com-plainantfs] dog as a service dog ... in retaliation for filing a previous fair housing complaint.”). After State Parkway filed a verified response, on June 30, 2011, the Department issued a “Final Investigative Report” based on two interviews with Michael Novak (one by telephone and one in-person) and one telephone interview, with the president of the condo board, as well as eight documents, including a termination notice sent to the Novaks, a few noise complaints and violation-notices, and the Novaks’ written request for CART. See DSOF, Exh. 6, IDHR Final Invest. Rep. On the same day, the Department issued a “Determination of Lack of Substantial Evidence” to support the Novaks’ cbmplaint. DSOF, Exh. 7, IDHR Determination. In its “Findings and Conclusion” section, the Department determined that the CART claim was unfounded because the investigation revealed that the alleged noise violation that necessitated the hearing where the CART was requested had béen dropped. Id at 4. As for the service-dog claim, the Department found that the “investigation did not reveal that Respondent undertook one or more substantial actions against Complainants that might dissuade a reasonable pérson from filing a charge.” Id. The Department also noted that because the initial complaint that had allegedly triggered the retaliation had been resolved in 2007, there was no basis to hold that the “protected activity” occurred “within such a time period'as to raise an inference of retaliatory motivation.” Id.

On August 9, 2011, the Novaks filed a request for review of the determination with the Illinois Human Rights Commission. See DSOF, Exh. 9, Request for Review. The Commission affirmed the Department’s determination in an order entered on February 9, 2015. See DSOF, Exh. 11, IHRC Order. The Commission also found no CART-related discrimination because “the evidence shows that the Association did agree to have CART Services present at the hearing,” at least at the Novaks’ expense, and the hearing had been cancelled anyway. • Id. ¶ II. The Commission also sustained the dismissal of the service-dog claim, but on a new ground — that it was untimely. The Commission ruled that the failure to accommodate the service animal really occurred in October 2009, when the Novaks re[905]*905ceived a termination notice that “included citations for pet violations,” so the No-vaks should have filed their charge within one year of that date, a deadline they missed by three days. Id. ¶ I.

C. Procedural History Before This Court

Meanwhile, the Novaks commenced the present action in December 2013, raising not just the two issues described above, but a broader array of discrimination allegations. See Novak, 2014 WL 4555581, at *1-3. The Defendants moved to dismiss the complaint on the basis of issue preclusion, arguing that the Novaks were collaterally estopped from bringing the entire federal action by the state agency proceedings.

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Bluebook (online)
141 F. Supp. 3d 901, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146475, 2015 WL 6560456, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/novak-v-state-parkway-condominium-assn-ilnd-2015.