Douglas v. Kriegsfeld Corp., 884 A.2d 1109 (2005)

Citation: Douglas v. Kriegsfeld Corp., 884 A.2d 1109 (2005)
Parent Document: Douglas v. Kriegsfeld Corp., 884 A.2d 1109 (2005)
Jurisdiction: DC (municipal)
Effective Date: 2005-10-13
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1472683/douglas-v-kriegsfeld-corp/ ↗

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As to the first required showing (suffering from disability), the federal government has stressed that persons, such as the tenant here, who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits "in most cases meet the definition of disability under the Fair Housing Act."[48] Counsel, however, did not attempt to demonstrate the tenant's disability on that basis, and thus the trial court did not consider it. Rather, the court evaluated the testimony of expert witnesses called by the tenant's counsel and accordingly premised the "disability" issue on the need for proof by experts. After the hearing, the court concluded that the quality of the testimony establishing the tenant's mental impairment and its effect on the maintenance of her apartment was deficient, because the witnesses were not sufficiently expert to opine on the subject. Eschewing the need for a psychiatrist or psychologist, the trial court observed that a "social worker or mental health specialist" could supply the requisite expert testimony. In acknowledging that possibility, moreover, the court was aware that the tenant's witnesses, James Sutton and Damon Byrd, were employed full time as mental health professionals *1130 by the District of Columbia government. Sutton, who had a masters degree in "mental health," had been a supervisor with the District's Emergency Psychiatric Response Division for sixteen years, with personal experience making psychiatric assessments and ordering involuntary civil commitments. Byrd had been a social worker with the District's Adult Protective Services Unit for three years, with experience investigating abused, neglected, self-neglected, and disabled adults. Both had daily, on-the-job experience with diagnosing persons as mentally ill, and each had multiple encounters with the tenant, whom Byrd had visited sixteen times. In court, Sutton and Byrd each testified that, in his opinion, the tenant was mentally ill, and that this illness, exacerbated by heavy dependence on alcohol, substantially limited her ability to care for her apartment.[49] The trial court, however, declined to grant credence to these appraisals.

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