Tenants Deserve A Right To A Jury Trial In Eviction Cases, ACLU And NAACP Argue In Omaha Case

By Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner:

October 27, 2022

LINCOLN — Renters facing eviction deserve the right to a jury trial, the ACLU of Nebraska and the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP argue in a new “friend of the court” brief to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The brief was filed Monday in an appeal of an eviction case out of Omaha in which an apartment owner, NP Dodge Management, sought to evict a tenant, Teresa Holcomb, for violating a clause in her lease about crime free/drug free housing.

NP Dodge maintained that Holcomb had violated that clause by threatening to attack two other residents in a common area.

The two organizations, in their brief, argue that Holcomb deserved to have a jury determine whether her “words of frustration violated the ‘violent criminal acts’ clause of her lease.”

Special issue for women, Blacks

“(That) was a disputed factual issue that she was entitled to have decided by a jury,” her lead attorneys, with Legal Aid of Nebraska and the Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest, wrote.

They added that eviction is “a matter of special importance to women, especially Black women, and their children, as well as people with disabilities.”

“Housing is so much more than just the walls that make up a house or an apartment, it is about security, safety and economic opportunity,” Scout Richters, senior legal and policy counsel at the ACLU of Nebraska,said in a press release.

“Giving Nebraskans the chance to have a jury during eviction proceedings is a step forward on racial justice and gender equity,” Richters added.

South Omaha apartment

Douglas County District Court Judge Michael Coffey had upheld a decision by a county court judge that granted NP Dodge’s request to evict Holcomb from a unit at Eagle Heights Apartments in South Omaha in May 2021.

That prompted the appeal to the Supreme Court.

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