Opinion ID: 580745
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Civil Penalty--Punitive Damages

Text: 51 Because Baumgardner had been in the real estate business renting houses for eight years, expressed his preference not to rent to the Complaint on the basis of his sex, and misrepresented removing the house in question from the rental market (although he previously had done this and later used it for his office), the ALJ imposed a punitive award against Baumgardner. The ALJ conceded that this was a single offense, and that there was no other evidence of discriminatory conduct on Baumgardner's part. He rented generally to males and to females and to blacks and to whites in his rental units. He had previously experienced major damage to the house in question by single male tenants. 52 We have heretofore recited that HUD's mismanagement of the complaint adversely affected Baumgardner's ability to negotiate or conciliate his refusal to permit Holley to inspect the house and denied him of an opportunity to work out a rental arrangement for Holley and his friends. This was clearly not a case of egregious racial discrimination as in Secretary HUD v. Blackwell, 908 F.2d 864 (11th Cir.1990), referred to by the ALJ, in which the statutory maximum civil penalty of $10,000 was assessed in addition to nearly $45,000 in proven compensatory damages. We entertain a clear conviction in this case, based upon all the circumstances in the record, that an award in excess of the allowed compensatory damages of $1500 for a civil penalty would be excessive, unjust, and improper. We, therefore, adjust the civil penalty damage award to $1500. Total damages, therefore, are determined to be $3000.