Topic: Asking “Where Are You From?” Results In $60,000 Rental Discrimination Penalty

[oldcoastie6468]

Asking “Where Are You From?” Results In $60,000 Rental Discrimination Penalty

by RICH VETSTEIN on JANUARY 26, 2014Where-are-you-from-512x273
Innocent Small Talk Apparently Illegal, According to Boston Fair Housing Commission

The seemingly innocent question posed by a Boston rental agent to Gladys Linder when they were searching for an apartment was “Where are you from?”

“Venezuela,” she answered.

Gladys and her husband went on to find an apartment a month later without further incident. But she found the question about her national origin insulting and upsetting.

This is Massachusetts, and you know what came next.

Stokel filed a complaint with the Boston Fair Housing Commission, claiming that rental agent’s question was discriminatory and caused her to suffer fear, anxiety and sleeplessness over a three-year period.

{snip}

Although this was the agent’s first discrimination complaint and there was no discriminatory impact on the tenants at all, the Commission found that the question itself was unlawful and issued one of the largest penalties I have seen in recent years — $10,000 in emotional distress damages, plus $44,000 in attorney’s fees and costs and a $7,500 civil penalty against the broker — a whopping $61,500 in total liability for this single question, not to mention the tens of thousands the agent had to pay for defense legal fees.

Emphasis mine.

http://massrealestatelawblog.com/2014/01/26/asking-where-are-you-from-results-in-60000-discrimination-penalty/

[Pandora]

Oh, fer crissake, ya whiny lookin'-for-a-payoff bitch.  Welcome to The United States of The Offended.

Can't stand it.

[IronDioPriest]

It would be better to live in a society where people feared doing this kind of thing because someone might come and break their legs, than to live in a society where the government views its bureaucracies as a discretionary weapon against the people.

[Libertas]

"...rental agent’s question was discriminatory and caused her to suffer fear, anxiety and sleeplessness over a three-year period."

Bull-effing-shyt!!!

But hey, asking people if they have guns in the house etc, that's just fukcing fine, eh?

We have to start suing fukcers into oblivion!

[ToddF]

I count the days until I can just get the fluke out...

Half the people there are defending this.  I literally share no common bond with a piece of cowardly garbage that would outlaw small talk.

Ironic that the "victims" escaped the sh*thole that is their own nation of Venezuela, just to come her and turn American into that very kind of sh*thole they escaped from.

[Weisshaupt]

It would be better to live in a society where people feared doing this kind of thing because someone might come and break their legs

One results in the other. Leftists are just too stupid to realize that. They feel beyond reproach as they do these things.. but things change, and at some point - be it in an election or in some dark alleyway, the shoe will be on the other foot.   After all, when they are going to make up crimes that you can't even foresee getting you into trouble, there really isn't any reason to not get into trouble on purpose.  A Government uses for illegitimate and immoral purposes only encourages the same- and all people are waiting for is the opportunity to go ahead and break these Ass-hats legs.
 

[richb]

Another reason why I am glad I am out of the real estate sales game.......   You have to be sooooo careful about anything you say,  because anything could bite you in the ass.   

And the industry as a whole do not defend their members at all, when they get this type of nonsense either.  You end up dangling in the wind.   I bet the error and  omission insurance will not be paying this "fine" either.