Condemned house leads to lawsuit against city
A Buffalo Township couple has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Washington and its code enforcement officer, claiming they’ve wrongfully been prevented from fixing a property damaged by a former tenant.
Gary and Kathy Yoders own the house at 805 Addison St., Washington, that was condemned and padlocked by Code Enforcement Officer Ron McIntyre after a tenant, Robert Noble, damaged the house while hiding from police. Noble lived at the house with Yoders’ elderly mother.
Police apprehended Noble at the house some 30 minutes after he walked out of Washington Hospital, where he had been transported following his arrest on aggravated assault charges.
Noble was found in the basement of the building, where he allegedly had kicked a hole in the wall and broke sewer and water lines in order to gain entrance. He was hiding between a chimney and wall and refused commands to come out.
The city’s code enforcement officer was called to the house, where he condemned the building because of the damage. The Area Agency on Aging was contacted to move Yoders’ mother, who lived in an upstairs apartment of the residence, for her well-being.
Afterward, the Yoderses contacted McIntyre about getting into the house to make repairs when McIntyre told them that “nobody was getting into the property” and hung up, according to the lawsuit filed last week.
The Yoderses claimed they have since repeatedly attempted to gain access to the house and have contacted McIntyre, who yelled at them and refused their requests. McIntyre also refused to return calls from the Yoderses while citing them for code violations at the property, the couple alleges.
The lawsuit contends that the Yoderses had always kept their property in good repair until the incident with Noble. Prohibited access to the building to make necessary repairs, the Yoderses have been unable to obtain new tenants or even sell the property.
The Yoderses claimed their 14th Amendment rights have been violated and that they’ve been defamed by McIntyre’s actions, which are described in the lawsuit as “obdurate, combative, vexatious (and) without cause or reason.”
The Yoderses are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.