4th Circuit - Substantive Due Process - Monell Liability The estate of a person who tragically died from carbon monoxide poisoning sued the Housing Authority that leased him an apartment. His estate sued asserting violations of substantive due process in the handling of maintenance of the property that allegedly caused the death. At the pleading stage, the lower court dismissed the case, but on appeal the 4th Circuit reversed finding that the Plaintiff alleged sufficient facts to overcome a deliberate indifference standard and sufficient facts to assert Monell Liability. The facts alleged paint a despairing picture of how the Housing Authority treated lower income families. Bear in mind that this is the pleading stage. Nevertheless, pivotal to the court's decision, the Authority adopted a policy recognizing the importance of carbon monoxide detectors to life and safety and required that the be installed and maintained in the "private" residences under the Authority's control, but not in the properties it rented to lower income families. The Authority apparently had one inspector for 2600 units and after the incident the code enforcement folks concluded that there were some 870 code violations throughout the units and that many did not have the state required carbon monoxide detectors and smoke detectors. The suit alleged that the Authority failed to perform preventative maintenance on its gas furnaces and the after the fact inspection found natural gas leaks in some units. Long story short, the complaint asserted sufficient facts for a trial according to the court. At trial the allegations may or may not prove true. Washington vs. Housing Authority 212059.P.pdf (uscourts.gov)<https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/212059.P.pdf> A law department having a housing authority for a client can use this unfortunate case to consider doing a legal audit of the authority's management of its units under the various applicable codes to ensure compliance with code and advise the client of the potential liability for not ensuring compliance. Charles W. Thompson, Jr. Of Counsel P: (202) 466-5424 x7110 M: (240) 876-6790 D: (202) 742-1016 [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> [logo]<https://imla.org/> 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org/> Plan Ahead! IMLA's 2022 Mid-Year Seminar<https://imla.org/seminars/>, April 8-11, 2022 in Washington, D.C.! IMLA's 2022 Annual<https://imla.org/annual-conference/> Conference, October 19-23, 2022 in Portland, OR! Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips.