Court Opinion

ID: 9470822
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:16:51.65344+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:07.222374
License: Public Domain

DAVID S. PORTER, Senior District Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision reversing the district court’s judgment on the ground that this case is barred by the 180-day statute of limitations contained in the Ohio Fair Housing Act, O.R.C. § 4112.051(A). I would affirm the district court’s holding that the applicable statute of limitations in this case is the six-year limitations period provided in O.R.C. § 2305.07 for liabilities created by statute, and that therefore the action is not time-barred. The fundamental reason for my disagreement with the Court on this issue is that I do not believe this is simply a “housing discrimination case.” In support of my position, I feel compelled to give a fuller statement of the operative facts.
I.
On January 18,1973, the Suttons entered into an agreement to buy property which was in the process of foreclosure by Central National Bank of Cleveland. When Bloom, the owner of the property located next door to the subject property, learned of the Sut-tons’ agreement, he immediately presented a secondary offer to purchase the property. The Suttons then withdrew the contingencies to their offer and Bloom failed to obtain the subject property by a superseding contract.
Despite the Suttons’ purchase agreement, Central National Bank elected to proceed with the scheduled sheriff’s sale of the foreclosed upon property. The sheriff’s sale was scheduled for February 8, 1973. On the night prior to the sheriff’s sale, Bloom and three of his neighbors met in the basement of Bloom’s home to plan to outbid the Suttons at the sale. Bloom and the three neighbors agreed to bid up to $40,000.00 at the sale, and each agreed to contribute $1,000.00 for the 10% downpayment that would be required. At the sheriff’s sale, Bloom appeared and bid $40,000.00, outbidding the Suttons for the property.
On March 28,1973, the Court of Common Pleas of Geauga County, Ohio refused to confirm the sheriff’s sale of the subject property to Bloom, and instead awarded the property to the Suttons on the ground that the Suttons, by virtue of their purchase contract, had the benefit of the owner’s equity of redemption in those proceedings.1
Bloom then filed a notice of appeal from the Order of the Common Pleas Court, and while the appeal was pending, obtained a stay of execution of the judgment. Bloom thereby blocked the Suttons from taking possession of the property while the appeal was pending. The appeal was dismissed by the Ohio Court of Appeals, without dissent, because it clearly had been taken from a non-appealable order. Bloom then applied to the Court of Appeals for reconsideration of its dismissal, but the application was denied and the case was remanded to the Geauga County Common Pleas Court.
On March 18, 1974, the Common Pleas Court again ruled that the sheriff’s sale should not be confirmed, and entered a final order transferring title to the Suttons. Bloom once again appealed to the Ohio Court of Appeals and filed a motion to stay execution of the judgment. That time, the Court of Appeals overruled the motion to stay the proceedings. Then, after the Common Pleas Court entered its final judgment on March 21, 1974, dismissing the foreclosure action, Bloom, for a third time, filed a motion to stay execution. The Court of Appeals again overruled Bloom’s motion to stay on April 4, 1974.
On February 18, 1975, the Court of Appeals heard the case on its merits and affirmed the trial court. Bloom once again moved for a reconsideration, and once again the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision.
Thereafter, Bloom moved the Court of Appeals for an order certifying the case to the Ohio Supreme Court on the ground that *1193there was a conflict between its decision and that of another Court of Appeals in Ohio. The Court of Appeals overruled the motion to certify, and Bloom appealed to the Supreme Court of Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court, sua sponte, disposed of Bloom’s appeal on October 24, 1975.
After that line of litigation, Bloom commenced two others. In May 1974, Bloom filed an action in the Geauga County Common Pleas Court against the Suttons seeking, inter alia, $100,000.00 in actual damages and $3,000,000.00 in punitive damages on the basis of an alleged willful, malicious, intentional and illegal participation in a “conspiracy” to deprive Bloom of his constitutional and statutory right to purchase the subject property. The trial court, finding no merit in this claim, dismissed it on the pleadings, holding that the matter was res judicata due to the earlier litigation. Bloom again appealed, and once again, the Court of Appeals upheld the trial court, holding, inter alia, that Bloom had failed to state a claim against Sutton. Bloom once more applied for reconsideration and his motion was overruled. He then appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, and such appeal was dismissed sua sponte on January 8, 1976.
At the same time that Bloom filed his second action in the Geauga County Common Pleas Court, he filed a companion case, substantially similar to the Geauga County action, in the United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, seeking $100,000.00 compensatory and $3,000,000.00 punitive damages, alleging that the Suttons had conspired with others to purchase the real estate in question. The district court (Thomas, J.) dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Bloom then moved for a new trial or for a rehearing. That motion was denied. Bloom appealed from the district court’s decision to this Court. This Court rejected the appeal, concluding that “. . . this action is nothing more than an attempt to utilize jurisdiction for the purpose of reversing or modifying the civil judgment of the state court.... ”
The Suttons maintain that, “[t]he ultimate result of all of the actions of the Appellant and the complex web of legal maneuvers was to deprive the Suttons of actual possession of their home for an entire year, to harrass [sic] and annoy them for many months thereafter and to cost them legal fees exceeding $15,000.00.” Brief of Appellees at 6.
On July 30, 1976, the Suttons filed the instant action alleging that their constitutional rights guaranteed by 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1982 and 1985 had been violated, and further, that they had been victims of a course of malicious prosecution. The claim of malicious prosecution was dismissed.
The evidence at trial showed that Bloom had been motivated in his actions by his desire to prevent blacks from moving into the neighborhood. On this basis, the jury returned a verdict against Bloom in favor of the Suttons.
II.
The Court concludes that the most analogous state statute is the Ohio Fair Housing Act, which it says “broadly covers discrimination in housing and property ownership, including the right to be free from discrimination when making a contract to purchase a home.” Yet appellees filed this action under section 1981, which prohibits discrimination in the making and enforcement of contracts, as well as under section 1982, which guarantees equal rights to purchase real and personal property.
Admittedly, the same facts are the basis for plaintiffs’ claims under both sections 1981 and 1982; however, plaintiffs stated two separate causes of action. The thrust of plaintiffs’ cause of action under section 1981 is the enforcement of their statutorily-created right to contract, and redress for a course of extreme conduct interfering with that right. In this regard, it does not matter that the contract was for a home. It could have been a contract for employment or for personal property. What is significant is that appellant Bloom interfered with the Suttons’ right to contract because the Suttons are black.
Thus, I conclude that this is not a typical housing discrimination case. The defend*1194ant-appellant here is not the owner of the subject property, but a third party who was bent on preventing the enforcement of the Suttons’ contract to purchase the property. He executed his discriminatory mission not only by making a second offer for the property and by organizing his neighbors for the purpose of outbidding the Suttons at the sheriff’s sale, but also by instituting a barrage of litigation to frustrate the Suttons' enjoyment of the same contractual rights as white persons.
Furthermore, an individual who establishes a cause of action under section 1981 may, under certain circumstances, obtain punitive damages. Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U.S. 454, 460, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 1720, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975). Punitive damages, however, are not available under the Ohio Fair Housing Act. Section 4112.-051(E) of that Act, O.R.C. § 4112.051(E), only provides for injunctive relief and “actual damages, together with the court costs.” Thus, for this reason as well, I conclude that the cause of action asserted by the Suttons under section 1981 is broader than a cause of action under the Ohio Fair Housing Law, and that the rationale for applying the 180-day limitations period of the state’s housing act is inapplicable.
I conclude that the most analogous state cause of action is an action upon a liability created by statute, the statute here being section 1981. Accordingly, I would apply Ohio’s six-year limitations period contained in O.R.C. § 2305.07, as the district court did, and affirm the district court’s judgment that this action is not time-barred.2 Since I would not have dismissed the action as untimely, I would have reached the other issues on appeal.

. Bloom had filed a motion with the Common Pleas Court on March 23, 1973, requesting that he be made a party to the foreclosure litigation.

. I disagree with the Court that the district court and the appellees isolated the word “contract” in § 1981 and for that reason applied the limitations period provided in O.R.C. § 2305.07 governing contracts not in writing. First, I doubt that the contract involved in this case was an oral contract. Moreover, the district court cites language from Mason v. Owens-Illinois, Inc., 517 F.2d 520 (6th Cir.1975), which indicates that the six-year limitations period was applied because it covers actions upon a liability created by statute. Cf. Balmes v. Board of Education, 436 F.Supp. 129, 132 (N.D. Ohio 1977) (a cause of action commenced in Ohio under § 1981 is limited by a six-year statute of limitations).
I recognize that my position in this case could be latched onto by plaintiffs in federal housing discrimination actions who want to circumvent the six-month statute of limitations contained in Ohio’s housing discrimination statute, since nearly every housing discrimination case involves interference in the making or enforcement of contracts. I therefore wish to emphasize that this is a unique case. I believe that the facts of this case support my conclusion that this is not a typical housing discrimination case, and that the cause of action asserted here is broader than a cause of action under the Ohio Fair Housing Law. I propose that the court consider the facts of each case presented to determine whether or not the plaintiff added a section 1981 claim to the complaint only in an effort to avoid the shorter limitations period, and disallow any such attempted circumvention.