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New York, January 20, 2001
Regrettably, this site
remains under construction as Vicki and her domestic
partner, Eileen Casey, continue fighting their eviction by their landlord, Columbia
University, in Morningside Heights, New York City. We are attempting to appeal pro se — representing ourselves in court — but the court is free to deny us permission to go to
a higher court, and most observers agree that we have little
chance of gaining permission.
Meanwhile, down the hall from
us, a gut-renovated apartment had remained vacant for over
four years, until Columbia finally found a tenant for it,
several months after this page first went online.
We highly recommend the law
firm Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler & Schwartz to any landlord seeking to get rid of a tenant. Borah
has successfully evicted us from New York City rent-controlled apartments twice — in 1977, from West 82nd Street & Columbus Avenue; and in
2000, from West 115th Street & Broadway. Each
time the firm successfully argued specious interpretations
of rent-control law. Each eviction was a "holdover." That
means that we paid all rent due the landlord, but were
evicted for reasons other nonpayment.
On the earlier occasion, Borah got rid of us by holding
that Vicki's taking Casey as her domestic partner violated
rent-control law. Now Borah has gained the court's favor by
arguing that the time needed by Vicki's mother for
medical attention should not count toward the two years of
co-residence required to succeed to rent-controlled tenancy
after the primary tenant's death or permanent absence. Borah
successfully prevailed on the court to ignore that Vicki's
mother returned home from rehabilitation and finally died at
home, forcing Columbia to acknowledge her lawful tenancy.
However, landlords
considering Borah's services should note not only that we
are a lesbian couple, but also that Vicki is transgendered. It is not certain that Borah would have been nearly
so successful with such worthless cases against more
mainstream tenants. In fact, neither landlord would have
attempted to evict had it not been for Vicki's
orientation.
In the
earlier case, Vicki had been living on West 82nd
Street for about ten years when she came out as
transgendered. In 1976 she and Casey, working together at
the feminist newspaper Majority Report, became domestic
partners, and Casey moved into Vicki's apartment. Soon after,
the landlord charged Vicki with taking an illegal
roommate. We argued that our relationship was no different
from that of a married couple, but, perhaps overcome by the
Borah attorney's jokes about Vicki's appearance and name,
the judge laughed and ordered us out.
The present case is The
Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
v. Vicki Richman, Eileen V. Casey, John and/or Jane
Doe. Columbia, as an institution, is remarkably
supportive of the gay, lesbian, and transgendered
community. However, an employee of Columbia's Institutional Real
Estate, Liz Baum, does not share such
institutional tolerance, and launched a successful campaign
to convince her supervisors that we were liars and
impostors. She first tried to evict Vicki's mother, who had
lived here for over 60 years; failing that, she went after
Vicki and Casey. When Baum's supervisors learned of her
duplicitous, double-dealing discrimination, they removed her
from service at this building, but made no attempt to
withdraw the eviction, possibly believing that another
apartment off rent control can't be all that bad. However,
Columbia has attempted eviction of no other tenant in our
situation.
Landlords will be pleased to learn that the Borah law firm does not shrink even from perjury. The Borah attorney Greg Vail, Esq., assisted by Baum, executed a court paper stipulating the date for upgrading the electrical system in our apartment to support the respirator that enabled Vicki's mother to breathe. They reneged on that stipulation and finished the electrical work over a month late, causing Vicki's mother to suffer a massive stroke over the delay in returning from rehabilitation to her home of 60 years. Then Vail and Baum executed affidavits claiming that the work had been done a month before stipulated and two months before it was actually done, hoping to show that Vicki's mother never really wanted, or was able, to come home.
Vail's orthography in his court pleadings confirm his and
Baum's targeting of Vicki as a trannie. Each court paper
cited either "John and/or Jane Doe" or "John Doe and Jane
Doe" as included respondents, although Vicki's mother and
both of us had announced our presence to the landlord in
writing long before the case began. The only earlier
"and/or" usage was in an eviction of an agency for the
developmentally disabled; to conceal their identities and genders, the
mentally retarded subtenants were called "John and/or Jane
Doe one to five."
Not only was the landlord
suggesting to the judges that we are impostors and liars,
using fake names to take advantage of a sick old lady, but
their insistence on using "John" as well as "Jane Doe" also
showed their hope that the outing of Vicki is her greatest
fear. Each of our former lawyers confirmed that Vail tried
to convince them in phone conversations that Vicki and Casey
were phonies and perverts intruding on the primary tenant. That is, Borah uses
the favorite tactics of landlords: calumny, fear, extortion
— trashing instead of lawyering. The law firm is a perfect
choice for profit-hungry landlords.
Unfortunately, after the
passing of Vicki's mother, Vicki and Casey had a lawyer
provided by Casey's union, CWA Local 1180. With no monetary
incentive to present more than a token defense, and perhaps
motivated by a gray-flannel wall of silence, our former
attorney refused to call the perjury, or the landlord's many
other violations against Vicki's mother and us, to the
court's attention in our defense.
Users visiting Borah, Goldstein, Altschuler & Schwartz may be amused to learn that the firm cites "Columbia University" as a
"representative client" seeking to remove tenants or to evade legal responsibility for repair. Readers might compare Borah's claim
with the statement by Columbia President George Rupp in his Report for 1996-7 :
At the Law School, many members of the Class of 1997—the second graduating class subject to a 40-hour minimum pro bono
requirement—did far more than the minimum. Several logged over 100 hours in the School clinics that provide free legal services to
residents of Harlem and Morningside Heights. Students also worked with Legal Aid lawyers to assist tenant groups and community
development associations in the neighborhood. In support of this endeavor, the School's Center for Public Interest Law joined with
the Legal Aid Society to establish a new formal connection, the Community Lawyering Project.
Dig deep in the page to find that quote. It was the Legal
Aid Society that represented Vicki's mother against Columbia. We are
grateful to State Senator David Paterson for writing two protest letters to President Rupp in support of Vicki's mother.
The most recent decision against us, from the Appellate
Term, First Department, was truly bizarre. The judges held
that an "aged" person — my mother — who goes to the
hospital necessarily loses her apartment. The judges did not
define "aged." The judges furthermore cited caselaw that
denied their argument. The earlier decision — Shaddick
v. 430 Realty Co. 250 AD2nd 417 — upheld the
tenant seeking succession, saying that rent law takes no
notice whether the original tenant was a "senior citizen."
Also the three appeal judges miraculously upheld a claim the
landlord never made; Columbia had acknowledged Vicki's mother as
the tenant of record before she died, after she returned
from the hospital.
The judges were apparently unmoved that Bill Scott, the
head of Institutional Real
Estate, told the New York Times (City Section, May 7,
2000), "We don't replace our 46-year-old tenants that fast,"
referring to a commercial grocery that had closed shop. The
judges were apparently more sympatico with Scott's subordinate,
Liz Baum, who had no problem with sending eviction papers to
the hospital room of a woman who had lived in the same
building for over 60 years — no problem with contributing to the tenant's massive stroke by
sabotaging repairs to the electrical system that would have
enabled the "aged" woman to come home on schedule.
The court is now considering our Memorandum of Law, as well
as other pleadings, to determine whether we have leave to appeal.
We hope to be
able to improve this page with happier documents and more on
ourselves, but it looks as though we may soon be homeless
and unable to maintain a consistent interactive connection.
Meanwhile, check out The Patrimony, a short story
by Vicki from about 20 years ago. Or The Restoration of Manion's
Coffin Works, another short story by Vicki from about 20 years ago.
Or some double-dactyl doggerel by Vicki.Or
perhaps visit the American
Society for Journalists and Authors. Or send a message
to Vicki or Casey while we're still
able to receive our email. We'll try to deliver any
documentation you may want to back us up. Fax, snail, email
attachment — your choice.
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