Wilson v. Bucci

39 Pa. D. & C.4th 382, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 131
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County
DecidedOctober 14, 1998
Docketno. GD97-20740, AD98000500
StatusPublished

This text of 39 Pa. D. & C.4th 382 (Wilson v. Bucci) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Alleghany County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Bucci, 39 Pa. D. & C.4th 382, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 131 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1998).

Opinion

WETTICK, J.,

This is a lawsuit brought by a grandparent in her own right and on behalf of her grandchild to recover damages resulting from the child’s alleged exposure to hazardous levels of lead-based paint at rental property that plaintiff and her grandson occupied pursuant to a section 8 lease. This section 8 housing rental assistance was administered by defendant Allegheny County Housing Authority.

Plaintiff’s claims against the housing authority are brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1871 codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1994), based on the housing author[384]*384ity’s alleged failure to comply with the Federal Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act, 42 U.S.C. §4801 et seq. (1995), the housing inspection provisions of section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937, 42 U.S.C. §1437f (Supp. 1998), and regulations promulgated under the authority of these two laws.

The 1973 amendments to the LBPPPA added section 302 which reads in part as follows:

“The secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall establish procedures to eliminate as far as practicable the hazards of lead-based paint poisoning with respect to any existing housing which may present such hazards and which is covered by ... housing assistance payments under a program administered by the secretary. . . .” Act of Nov. 9, 1973, PL. no. 93-151, sec. 4(a)(1), 87 stat. 566 (codified at 42 U.S.C. §4822(a)(l)).

Under the previously described federal legislation and the implementing regulations, a housing authority must conduct a preoccupancy inspection for defective paint surfaces and other deficiencies and additional periodic inspections, at least annually thereafter, for units built before 1978 that will be occupied by any family with young children.1 When the housing authority detects defective paint surfaces, it must follow HUD procedures for notifying tenants and owners of the presence of hazardous levels of lead paint.2

[385]*385In the present case, plaintiff-tenant alleges that the property which she rented contained numerous areas of cracking, chipping, peeling, and otherwise deteriorating paint during the entire period that plaintiff and her grandson occupied the property, from April 1995 to October 1997, and that the housing authority failed to properly conduct the required inspections. The housing authority has filed preliminary objections seeking dismissal of plaintiff’s section 1983 action on the ground that violations of the LBPPPA, the inspection provisions of section 8, and the implementing HUD regulations cannot be enforced through a private action for money damages under section 1983. These preliminary objections are the subject of this opinion and order of court.

Section 1983 provides a cause of action for the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the constitution and laws of the United States. In Maine v. Thiboutot, 448 U.S. 1, 100 S.Ct. 2502, 2504 (1980), the United States Supreme Court held that section 1983 provides a cause of action for violations of federal statutes. Subsequent case law restricts section 1983 actions to violations of federal legislation creating federal rights; section 1983 actions cannot be based on what are characterized as simply violations of federal law.

The United States Supreme Court applies the analysis developed in Wilder v. Virginia Hospital Association, 496 U.S. 498, 110 S.Ct. 2510 (1990), to determine which federal laws create federal rights enforceable under section 1983. This analysis was described in Blessing v. Freestone, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 1359-60 (1997) (citations omitted), as follows:

“In order to seek redress through section 1983, however, a plaintiff must assert the violation of a federal [386]*386right, not merely a violation of federal law. We have traditionally looked at three factors when determining whether a particular statutory provision gives rise to a federal right. First, Congress must have intended that the provision in question benefit the plaintiff. Second, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the right assertedly protected by the statute is not so ‘vague and amorphous’ that its enforcement would strain judicial competence. Third, the statute must unambiguously impose a binding obligation on the states. . . . Even if a plaintiff demonstrates that a federal statute creates an individual right, there is only a rebuttable presumption that the right is enforceable under section 1983. Because our inquiry focuses on congressional intent, dismissal is proper if Congress ‘specifically foreclosed a remedy under section 1983.’ Congress may do so expressly, by forbidding recourse to section 1983 in the statute itself, or impliedly, by creating a comprehensive enforcement scheme that is incompatible with individual enforcement under section 1983.”

In the cases of Roman v. Horace, supra, 1997 WL 777844; Hunter v. Estate of Baecher, supra, C.A. no. 2:95 CV 878; and Parker v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, 33 Phila. 97 (1997), the housing authorities contended that a tenant may not base a section 1983 action on alleged violations of the LBPPPA, the inspection provisions of section 8, and their implementing regulations. In each case, the court concluded that under the Wilder analysis, the plaintiffs may maintain a section 1983 cause of action.3 Each court found that the plaintiffs [387]*387were the intended beneficiaries of legislation and implementing regulations, that the legislation and implementing regulations imposed requirements that were sufficiently specific to be within the competence of the judiciary to enforce, that the legislation and the implementing regulations created mandatory directives, that there was no explicit provision within the legislation forbidding recourse to section 1983, and that a private cause of action is not inconsistent with the regulatory scheme. I find these opinions to be persuasive and adopt their reasoning.

Plaintiff’s position is also supported by Wright v. City of Roanoke Development & Housing Authority, 479 U.S. 418, 107 S.Ct. 766 (1987), which permitted tenants living in section 8 housing to sue a housing authority under section 1983 for violating the rent ceiling imposed by an amendment to the Housing Act of 1937 and implementing HUD regulations and by Farley v. Philadelphia Housing Authority, 102 F.3d 697 (3d Cir. 1996), which permitted a tenant to bring a section 1983 action against a housing authority to enforce provisions of the Housing Act governing administrative grievance procedures for tenants disputing adverse housing authority actions.

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Related

Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs.
436 U.S. 658 (Supreme Court, 1978)
Maine v. Thiboutot
448 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Wilder v. Virginia Hospital Assn.
496 U.S. 498 (Supreme Court, 1990)
Blessing v. Freestone
520 U.S. 329 (Supreme Court, 1997)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
39 Pa. D. & C.4th 382, 1998 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 131, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-bucci-pactcomplallegh-1998.