Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, last week, lawyers for New York City came up with a bizarre defense to a class-action lawsuit brought by New York City Housing Authority tenants who say their public housing apartments gave their children lead paint poisoning. The City’s lawyers actually told the presiding judge that parents of the affected children should have known from the “open, obvious and apparent” decrepitude of the apartments that their children were likely to be exposed to lead paint poisoning and should therefore be considered as having “willingly and voluntarily assumed such risks.”
This extreme version of blaming the victim was just too much for the presiding judge, William Pauley III, who exploded in disbelief and immediately ordered the lawyers to amend their papers warning that they faced sanctions if they didn’t.
The tale of NYCHA’s outrageous treatment of its tenants is a long and notorious one and includes not only lead paint, but also water and heat deprivations and rodent infestation.
We don’t know that Mayor De Blasio was personally aware of the antics of the lawyers, but we are amazed how something like this could have happened on the watch of a mayor who promotes himself as the Progressive-in-Chief and champion of the needy to audiences around the country. What is the culture that has taken root in his administration?
It is also noteworthy that if private landlords were to be found guilty of even a fraction of what NYCHA has been shown to be, there would be fines, seizures, and possible imprisonment.