Hearse-Driving Tenant Claims Discrimination
A tenant says that she is being singled out unfairly by her landlord because she drives a hearse. According to a report, she also sports a shiny black casket on her balcony.
The woman’s family told reporters they feel their daughter, who suffers from a spinal condition that makes it easy for her to fall, is being discriminated against because of her disability.
The tenant is a student at nearby University of Southern California and is studying to be a mortician.
The tenant says that the landlord provided her a handicap parking space, but when other tenants began to complain about the hearse parked at the front of the building, she was told she’d have to park it somewhere else — like in front of the children’s orthopedic clinic across the street, according to the report.
If the tenant files a claim for discrimination, a court ultimately may have to decide whether a tenant with a disability is allowed to park anything they want in their handicap spot. In other cases, landlords have been ordered to allow nonconforming vehicles — like over-sized vans — because these vehicles were necessary to accommodate a tenant’s disability.
Meanwhile, the landlord will have to decide what to say to other residents about the coffin on the balcony.
What would you do?
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