A state judge gave a 74-year-old tenant until the end of the month to move her belongings out of her Fair Haven Heights apartment, while her daughter seeks to relocate her mom from the hospital and into a nursing home.
That was the outcome of an eviction-case hearing that took place in state housing court Tuesday.
The virtual hearing was held online via live video-stream before state Superior Court Judge John Cirello.
The case dates back to to early September, when local landlord Bryant Thomas filed an eviction lawsuit against a tenant living in a rented condo on Quinnipiac Avenue.
According to the original legal complaint, the cause for eviction was lapse of time — that is, the tenant’s month-to-month lease had expired, and the landlord decided to not renew her rental agreement.
In late September, the tenant filed an answer to the eviction complaint. She wrote that she is 74 years old, and that her husband died in February 2020.
“Then the pandemic hit,” she continued. “My account was closed. Due to the shutdown, I have not been able to get a new ID to open an account to receive funds from his pension.”
She wrote that she has been hospitalized or in rehab “often” over the last year because she has “seven chronic illnesses.”
According to public documents posted to the state court website in this case, the landlord and the tenant struck a stipulated agreement in late October.
“The Defendant and Plaintiff represent that there is currently a UniteCT application pending, where funds may be forthcoming,” that stipulation reads.
The parties therefore agreed to a 30-day stay to the eviction as the state processed the rent-relief application.
“If the UniteCT application is approved and funds are granted to and accepted by the Plaintiff,” the stipulation continues, “a Withdrawal of Action shall be filed.”
Thomas Breen file photo
State Superior Court Judge John Cirello.
In court on Tuesday, landlord-hired attorney Ori Spiegel told the judge that the UniteCT application had not panned out — and his client wanted to follow through with the eviction and regain possession of the Quinnipiac Avenue property.
“We’ve had two mediations,” Spiegel said. “We’ve had lots of promises about UniteCT. Nothing came to fruition.”
He said his understanding is that the tenant “is transitioning to a nursing home or some assisted facility, and needs time to move out.” His client would agree to a “certain period of time” to allow her to move out. But, he concluded, “we would like a judgment today.”
The tenant herself did not appear in virtual court on Tuesday.
Her daughter, Faith Martin, told the court that her mom is currently hospitalized in Bridgeport. She said her mom first needed surgery for an aneurysm, and more recently was diagnosed with dementia.
Martin said she’s in the process of becoming her mom’s legal conservator, but is not done with that probate-court paperwork yet. “She’s not capable of handling her own business anymore,” Martin said.
“Ms. Martin, you’re not an attorney, correct?” Cirello asked.
“No, sir,” Martin replied. “I’m just her daughter.”
“I appreciate you doing the right thing for your mom,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that I can have you testify on her behalf” since Martin is neither an attorney nor her mom’s legal conservator.
Cirello told Martin that he was going to proceed with the summary-process trial Tuesday, even though her mom was not present. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that your mom is going to be out tomorrow,” he said. “There’s going to be time, and we’re going to try to make this transition as smooth as possible.”
After Thomas testified about the tenant’s month-to-month lease expiring, Cirello noted that the landlord first served a notice to quit on July 8. The quit date on that notice was Aug. 11. That’s more than 30 days after, he said, as is required by the governor’s executive order for lapse-of-time evictions.
Cirello reviewed the tenant’s legal response, and reviewed her “equitable” argument about her husband dying, her ID expiring, her trouble opening a new bank account, her lack of access to her late husband’s pension payments, and her struggles with chronic illnesses.
“Ms. Martin, the court, presented with the evidence by the plaintiff, has no option but to find that judgment of possession should go in favor of the landlord,” Cirello said.
How much time do you think your mom needs before she’s able to find a new place to live? he asked.
Right now she’s at Bridgeport Hospital, Martin replied. “They’re not allowing her to be released until they find a facility for her.” Now it’s just up to the family to go to her Quinnipiac Avenue apartment and pack her things up and figure out where to store them.
“This has to be an incredibly difficult time for you and your family,” Cirello said.
“It is,” Martin replied.
She asked for two weeks to help clear out her mom’s apartment.
Cirello granted her until Feb. 28. “As long as you have all the stuff out by then and it’s left in a broom-clean condition by that time, then there are no consequences, other than the eviction being on her record,” he said. “If you and your siblings could make sure that that happens, I think that that would be ideal.”
“These are troubling times,” he concluded. “I just want to wish you the very best with your mother and resolving this case. I hope that you’re getting the encouragement you need from those who love you and are around you.”
Tenant's Daughter: "She's Always Been Strong"
In a phone interview with the Independent after the housing court hearing concluded, Martin spoke about how challenging the past two years have been for her family in general, and for her 74-year-old mom in particular.
“She’s always been strong,” Martin said as she choked back tears. “I’m trying to stand up and be a voice” for her.
“My mom never intended to not pay this man.” Bad luck and bad health and a global pandemic, however, intervened.
She said her mom had lived in the Quinnipiac Avenue apartment for over four years.
When her stepfather was still alive, they were able to pay their $1,500 monthly rent — and little else — thanks to his pension and their separate Social Security payments.
When her stepfather died and as her mom struggled to access her late husband’s pension, Martin said, she just couldn’t keep up with that monthly rent with her Social Security alone.
“I’m doing everything I can to keep my mother afloat,” she said.
Martin said she tried and tried last fall to apply for the state’s UniteCT rental relief program on behalf of her mom. She said she’d call the program’s support line multiple times a day.
She said she’d either wait an hour or two for someone to pick up the phone, or — when someone did pick up and try to help her — she wasn’t able to translate the advice into an actual, successful submission of an application. She added completing the application became all the more difficult when her mom was hospitalized later in the year.
Martin was asked how she felt not being able to testify on behalf of her mom during Tuesday’s court hearing because she is not a lawyer or her mom’s conservator.
“It was kind of hard,” she responded. “I had to turn the camera for a second. When they said I couldn’t talk for mom, it made me upset,” and she had to turn away so that the other people on camera wouldn’t see her cry.
I think it's time for another hard luck story of a landlord to balance out the constant sob stories of tenants. Tenants take months and months of non-payment; then they develop all these illnesses and tragedies. If the same fate befell the landlord; there would be no sympathy for not paying taxes or maintaining the property. Only tenants can suffer illness and setbacks; I guess, in our upside down and unfair housing courts. The daughter should take her mother in and relieve the property owner of a non-paying tenant. I'm sure she will never pay the debt her parents made for a good they received-- living in the apartment for nothing.