3 Renters Win Settlements in Discrimination Suits

A Northridge resident and a Glendale couple have won settlements in separate suits claiming that they were denied rentals because they are black.

Earl Gibson, 38, received $11,500, and the couple, Jewel Washington, 34, and Frances Pritchard, 36, received $6,000 in the settlements, according to their attorney, Samuel L. Hart.

The settlements were in the usual range for suits based on laws forbidding discrimination in rental housing, Hart said. Although there have been awards as high as $80,000 in the Los Angeles area, most losers in such suits pay between $3,000 and $20,000, he said.

Hart said Gibson attempted to move from his Northridge apartment to a larger apartment in the same community in April last year. When he applied for a one-bedroom unit in the 9800 block of Reseda Boulevard, he was told by the manager, Delores Sciarrillo, that the rent for the apartment was $695 a month, plus a $500 deposit, Hart said.

But Sciarrillo also told him there were no apartments in the building available for at least 30 days, and said to check back with her in a month, Hart said.

Afterward, Gibson asked a white woman friend to go to the same building and apply for the apartment, Hart said. His friend was told by Sciarrillo that the rent was $595 a month, with a $400 deposit, he said.

Gibson complained to the Fair Housing Council, a Van Nuys-based nonprofit organization that investigates landlord-tenant conflicts. The council referred Gibson to Hart, who filed suit in federal district court for $50,000 and punitive damages against Sciarrillo and GMN Inc., a partnership that owns the building.

“I’ve been through this so many times, I was just tired of it,” Gibson said.

At a pretrial conference last month, the partnership agreed to pay Gibson $11,500 in a settlement.

Bias ‘Still Exists’

Gibson now lives in another apartment in Northridge, and said he had no misgivings about living in the San Fernando Valley. “This just made me realize that discrimination still exists,” he said.

In the other case, Washington and Pritchard, who lived in Glendale, said they had tried to relocate to a larger apartment in Burbank in January last year. They applied to the owners of a building on Angeleno Avenue and were told to check back on their application in a week.

But when Washington called back, the owners, Erminio Iacobelli and his wife, Eugenia, said they had never heard of the couple and did not recall receiving an application from them, Hart said. Washington was told by the owners that the apartment was already rented, he said.

Hart, contacted by the Fair Housing Council, filed suit against the Iacobellis, asking for $50,000 and unspecified punitive damages. The Iacobellis settled for $6,000 after a pretrial hearing last month.

Washington and Pritchard have remained in the same apartment in Glendale. “We would still like to live in the Valley,” Washington said. “We know all people don’t discriminate. Just some people.”