Shipman & Goodwin Secures Order Certifying Class of Former Barbour Gardens Tenants in Dispute Over Substandard Living Conditions

Shipman & Goodwin LLP has secured an order certifying a class of former residents of Barbour Gardens, once a publicly subsidized housing complex situated in Hartford’s North End.  After regulators shuttered the complex based on deficient inspection scores and associated safety violations, several tenants filed suit for the proposed class against the complex’s owner, its manager, and certain of the owner’s members.

As defined by the Superior Court for the Complex Litigation Docket in Hartford, the certified class comprises all tenants who resided at Barbour Gardens at any time from January 1, 2015, through when the last tenants were evacuated in 2019.

As the class-certification decision recounted, before a late 2018 federal inspection on short notice, one defendant’s “employee predicted that Barbour Gardens ‘will come back as possibly the lowest score ever received.’  This prediction proved accurate: Barbour Gardens received a score of 9c—the lowest score received by any project in Connecticut’s history.  During the inspection of 20 rental units, 138 health and safety deficiencies were observed, including electrical hazards, inoperable windows and doors, mold and mildew, water damage, and a bedbug infestation.”  This inspection report extrapolated that the whole complex had “a total of 423 health and safety deficiencies.”

As the Court’s decision further noted, “defendants did not correct any of the deficiencies documented,” leading the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to cancel Barbour Gardens’ participation in the federal project‑based rental‑assistance program.  “Given the limited number of housing units that qualify for federal subsidies,” however, “the low-income residents at Barbour Gardens struggled to find affordable housing.  Many residents who had nowhere else to go were forced to remain at Barbour Gardens, despite the deplorable living conditions.”

As alleged, the crisis culminated in June 2019—when, as the Court’s decision recited, “three feet of standing wastewater flooded into the basement of one of Barbour Gardens’ four buildings.  The plumbing system pumped the sewage from one building into another.  As a result, the city evacuated the families who had remained at Barbour Gardens while awaiting the opportunity to transition to safe and habitable affordable housing.  HUD deemed the property too unsafe for residents to return, and these families were permanently displaced.”

The quoted passages from the class-certification decision incorporated the Connecticut Supreme Court’s description of the evidence in an earlier interlocutory appeal, which set the stage for the more recent certification order. 

Weighing this and other evidence, and the parties’ arguments, the Superior Court granted class certification on plaintiffs’ claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, arising from defects relating to Barbour Gardens’ common areas.  The certification order specifically allows plaintiffs to pursue classwide remedies of disgorgement of rental or other income, punitive damages and attorney’s fees.

The case team includes Partners Eric Del Pozo (who argued the motion and preceding appeal), Mark Ostrowski, Joette Katz and Jim Bergenn, with Associates Sarah Dlugoszewski and Sarah Niemiroski.  As class counsel, Shipman & Goodwin is proud to have achieved this significant milestone and will continue to seek appropriate justice for the tenant class.