Judge Threatens To Find City In Contempt

A Superior Court judge threatened to hold the city in contempt of court if it continues a pattern of providing incomplete and last-minute health and property records to opposing counsel in a West River child lead poisoning case.

That was one of the stronger pronouncements that Judge Walter Spader, Jr. made from his bench in the third-floor housing court of 121 Elm St. on Tuesday afternoon during a status conference for the case Elijah Hall v. City of New Haven.

After learning that the city had failed to abide by a few of the orders issued after the case’s previous hearing one month ago, Spader set another follow-up hearing for the case for the morning of Aug. 10.

But next time, Spader warned, if the city fails to follow his orders, and specifically, if fails to provide all relevant Health Department files requested by the plaintiff, then he will consider declaring the city in contempt of court without any need for the opposing counsel to file a written motion requesting such an order.

“Just get it done,” Spader said.

The case in question is a lawsuit brought by the New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) that alleges that the city failed to protect 2‑year-old West River tenant Elijah Hall through the Health Department’s alleged incomplete and untimely inspection and abatement of lead paint hazards in Hall’s second-floor apartment at 75 Sherman Ave.

Tuesday’s 30-minute status conference was case’s second day in court, following an initial four-hour-long hearing on June 26 that left the city with a few specific orders and dates by which to complete them.

Last month, Spader ordered the city to immediately relocate Hall and his mother Jennifer Williams to a nearby hotel; to work with the property’s landlord, Abdullah Soliman, to pick a lead abatement contractor by June 29 and then inform the plaintiff of the selection; to ensure that the lead abatement work was completed 30 days after the selection of the contractor; and to provide the plaintiff’s attorney with an updated version of the city Health Department’s files on this matter on or before July 22.

On Tuesday afternoon, New Haven Legal Assistance Association Attorney Amy Marx told Spader that most of his previous order had not been complied with.

“We are totally unsatisfied” with the city’s actions on these items, she said.

She said the city did indeed relocate Hall and his mother to an efficiency room in the Village Suites on Long Wharf immediately after the June 26 hearing. However, the city failed to notify the plaintiff after the city and the landlord selected a lead abatement contractor on June 27. And it has failed to ensure that the lead abatement work will by this Thursday, which is 30 days after the selection of the contractor.

In fact, Marx said, ​“absolutely no work has been commenced [at the property] to date.”

Finally, Marx told Spader that the Health Department files that he had ordered the city to deliver by July 22 were not handed over until today. She said she received the files electronically earlier on Tuesday afternoon, and didn’t receive the full paper file until the beginning of the court hearing, when Williams handed the packet to her.

“Your order was clearly violated,” she said. ​“Nothing was given to us anywhere near the 22nd.” She said she did not have adequate time to review the files to see if anything was missing, and that she was considering filling a motion to find the city in contempt of court.

Based on her reading of the law, she said, criminal contempt of court refers to the willful disregard of a court’s orders, and civil contempt of court refers to willful disregard of requests by another party.

“We have both these things going on,” she said.

On behalf of the city, Williams said the primary reason for the delay in completing the abatement work was the time required to complete the necessary paperwork and get necessary sign offs on the landlord’s application for federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) subsidies for the lead abatement.

An earlier hearing for another court case also revealed the extent to which the city’s Health Department relies on paper, not electronic, files for its records.

That city-management federal subsidy program has certain steps that must be followed in order for money to be reprioritized, released, and paid up front to the selected contractor. He said the HUD subsidy money didn’t become available for this particular project until July 20.

In the Health Department file that Williams provided to Marx, files showed that the city and the landlord chose the contractor Oliver Painting to complete the lead abatement work. Oliver submitted a bid to the city on June 22 to complete the abatement of the interior of the property for $9,000 and to complete the abatement of the exterior of the property for $7,500.

The HUD subsidy files show that Soliman will receive $19,500 in a five-year, 0‑percent-interest, forgivable loan from the city.

“The process takes three to six months,” Williams said. ​“The city got it down to under a month.”

Spader said he recognized that the city was working to remedy the alleged harm done to Hall and was working to follow the judge’s June 26 orders.

However, he said, he did not find the HUD subsidy-related delays an adequate excuse for the city not following a timeline that he had set back on June 26 based on testimony from the city’s Health Department.

Furthermore, he said, the city’s habit of turning over files late or not at all was on display on June 26, when Corporation Counsel John Rose delayed in handing over Health Department files to Marx until the hearing itself when the judge ordered him too. And even during that hearing, Rose proceeded to submit as evidence a part of the file that had not been included in what he gave to Marx a few minutes prior.

“I saw a discovery violation during that hearing,” Spader said.

For that reason, he said, he issued a new order on Tuesday for the two parties to come back to court for another status conference on Aug. 10. He ordered the city to provide Marx with all relevant files from the Health Department and from other city departments by Aug. 7. And he ordered the city to provide in court on Aug. 10 all witnesses subpoenaed by Marx by Aug. 7. He said the city must ensure that the lead abatement work is completed on the second floor of 75 Sherman by the next status conference.

“I don’t see anything contingent of equivocal in my order,” he said.

Previous coverage:

• Lead $ Search Advances
• 3 Landlords Hit With New Lead Orders
• Another Judge Rips City On Lead
• Judge To City: Get Moving On Lead
• Health Department Seeks Another $4.1M For Lead Abatement
• City-OK’d Lead Fixes Fail Independent Inspection
• Judge: City Dragged Feet On Lead
• 2nd Kid Poisoned After City Ordered Repairs
• Judge: City Must Pay
• 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