Money damages ruled out in Farmers Branch rent ban suit

FB: Judge says owners can't get money over immigration suit


10:00 PM CST on Tuesday, December 11, 2007
By STEPHANIE SANDOVAL / The Dallas Morning News
ssandoval@dallasnews.com

Apartment owners who sued Farmers Branch over its ordinance that bars them from renting to most illegal immigrants have no right to monetary damages, U.S. District Court Judge Sam Lindsay ruled Tuesday.

Judge Lindsay didn't rule on the main issue – whether Ordinance 2903 is constitutional.

But he said the city caused no damage to the apartment complexes because legal action has kept the ordinance from taking effect.

Residents resoundingly approved the ordinance in a May 12 election.

But attorneys for apartment owners and tenants filed suit within days and obtained a court order blocking enforcement until the constitutionality is resolved.

Two lawsuits – one filed by the Bickel & Brewer Storefront, the other by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – were combined by the court for trial purposes.

It is the Bickel & Brewer suit that sought unspecified damages.

The plaintiffs argued that they lost tenants, and prospective tenants, after the City Council adopted an earlier version of the rental ban and as a result of the heated debate leading up to the May election.

A state district court issued a temporary restraining order barring the city from enacting the earlier version.

But council members withdrew that ordinance, adopted 2903 and put it to a public vote.

"I think it's an important development," said Michael Jung, partner in the Strasburger & Price law firm, which is representing the city in this case and two others over its efforts against illegal immigration.

William A. Brewer III of the Bickel & Brewer Storefront said he was disappointed with the ruling, "but I guess it moves the case now to the judgment phase."

He said his firm will ask Judge Lindsay for a summary judgment based on comments he made in issuing a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction, indicating that he preliminarily found the law unconstitutional.

Lisa Graybill, legal director for the ACLU of Texas, said she wasn't surprised by Tuesday's ruling.

"They wanted to quantify in cash the amount of money that apartment owners lost because the ordinance was contemplated," she said.

"That's hard to prove. How do you prove ... who didn't rent an apartment because they thought the ordinance would go into effect?"

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