When a water pipe burst in Phyllis Brannan’s apartment she asked the manager at Pine Valley Apartments to repair the damage one room at a time to accommodate her disability. They refused and Brannan, who had lived at Pine Valley for twenty-one years, was forced to move. The owners of Pine Valley, the Fourmidable Group, then sued Brannan for over $500 of her security deposit blaming her for the damage caused by the frozen water pipe. “It’s unfair when a landlord uses a bad situation to line their own pockets” commented Brannan.
Brannan called the Ann Arbor Tenants Union who in turn referred her to the Fair Housing Center of Washtenaw County. FHC Cooperating Attorneys Jonathan Rose and Jonathan Weber filed suit in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on behalf of Brannan, a retired teacher, claiming that Pine Valley refused to reasonably accommodate Brannan’s disability. The case was assigned to Judge Donald E. Shelton.
