Housing and Consumer Law Clinic

Beverly Roberts, 3L, Tyrona DeWitt, 3L, and Sharlene Kranz, 3L, celebrated with sparkling cider and champagne this summer after experienced process server, Gene Wilkerson, 3L, finally "tagged" an elusive landlord with clients’ summons and complaints. The defendant/landlord is accused of ignoring complaints from his mostly Hispanic renters about housing code violations. In the fall semester of 2001, students will depose the landlord and seek injunctive relief.

June Yeager, 3L, cajoled an opposing attorney into agreeing to the most impressive settlement for a client this summer. Under the terms of the agreement, Yeager’s client will move to a completely renovated unit and pay no more than subsidized rent for three years. Yeager’s client also received a sizeable rent abatement, moving expenses, and a new television and microwave.

Sharlene Kranz aggressively litigated the most unusual consumer case of the past several years. As the court was about to enter summary judgment against her previously pro se client in a substantial medical collection case, Kranz entered her appearance, opposed the motion for summary judgment, responded to requests for admissions, filed an amended answer, requested a jury trial, and then sent the opposing party an appropriate pile of discovery requests.

In Kranz’s case, the client’s story is unusually compelling. A defendant in this case, the client claims to have incurred the medical expenses as a result of being physically beaten by her now estranged husband, who is shielded by diplomatic immunity. After the beating, her husband stated to the hospital that he would pay.

Kranz is attempting to persuade the plaintiff, Howard University Hospital, that it should dismiss the matter because Howard receives various funds to pay for the care of indigent patients.

At a pretrial hearing precedent to a jury trial, June Phillips, 3L, argued and a won a motion for summary judgment by asserting hyper-technical arguments concerning bad service of a notice to quit. Ms. Phillips is the fourth UDC-DCSL student to win a case on behalf of her client against this landlord.

Tyrona De Witt handled a potpourri of matters this summer, including a bench trial on August 31 in which she made a motion for summary judgment. In that motion, she made a variety of arguments, including a novel one pertaining to the landlord’s failure to obtain a Real Estate Broker’s license.

After an exhausting series of calls and meetings, DeWitt also successfully negotiated a client’s contract for purchase of a house. The success is sweetened by the knowledge that last semester, Dan Toto, 3L, saved the same client from eviction after foreclosure.

Beverly Roberts kept the midnight oil burning by litigating two court actions and one administrative action. She has drafted a relatively arcane "writ of mandamus" to request the D.C. Court of Appeals to nudge the rent control agency out of its torpor, and into writing a long-awaited decision granting our client’s treble damages and UDC-DCSL attorney’s fees.

Tyrona DeWitt, June Yeager, and Sharlene Kranz all filed and are prepared to argue tenant petitions in the rent control agency. By their mutual observations, landlords are trying to increase the rent illegally in epidemic numbers. Student counsel have mastered esoteric and nearly inscrutable areas of the rent control statute to make persuasive arguments that the rent increases are illegal.