William Murphy, a blind, 52-year-old widower and his two daughters, aged 17 and 11, moved to Wilmington, Del., in Nov. 2020, to be closer to other family members. Murphy signed a one-year lease and received rental assistance from Social Services. The landlord complained about a delay with receiving the partial rent payment from Social Services, and in Feb. 2021, the water and electricity to the home were shut off in violation of state law. Then, on the morning of Feb. 11, during a bitterly cold snowstorm, constables arrived at the Murphy home, ordered them to vacate the premises, and gave the family 30 minutes to collect their belongings and leave. Even though the person named in the Eviction Order was someone other than Murphy, and despite Murphy showing proof of a signed lease in good standing, Murphy and his daughters were still ordered to leave the home, unable to take most of their personal possessions.
Murphy challenged the wrongful eviction in court, and one week later, a state magistrate judge found the Murphys had been unlawfully ousted from their home and that the landlord had weaponized a writ of eviction for a previous female tenant to wrongfully evict the Murphy family. The Rutherford Institute subsequently filed a federal civil rights complaint in Delaware district court in March 2021, demanding that Delaware officials cease their “evict first, ask questions later” practice and ensure that future eviction procedures respect due process rights. The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, and the case is now on appeal before the Third Circuit.
Affiliate attorneys Thomas and Stephen Neuberger and Sanjay K. Bhatnagar are representing Murphy and his daughters, and Stephen Neuberger advanced the arguments in the appellate briefs.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated and educates the public on a wide spectrum of issues affecting their freedoms.
This press release is also available at www.rutherford.org.
Source: https://tinyurl.com/23rhx9cu
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