Mobile Home Park Owner Fights ‘Lewd, Lascivious’ Activity by Retirees
The owner of a mobile home park for retirees who frowns on unmarried couples living together has launched a legal battle he hopes will turn the clock back 100 years.
“This case could lead to the re-emergence of an extremely old and valuable principle--the family,” said Peter Hooper, lawyer for Romany Mobile Home Park.
The case could affect all the fair-housing laws in Florida, said Gloria Williams, president of the Florida Assn. of Community Relations Professionals.
Hooper represents William Watson, a quiet man in his early 60s who refers inquiries to his attorney: “I don’t mean to be discourteous, but talk to my lawyer. I don’t want to put my foot in my mouth.”
He’s asking the courts if an 1868 state law against “lewd and lascivious” cohabitation is grounds to evict unmarried old couples who stay together in the same trailer. Hooper said “lewd and lascivious” is a general legal term that does not necessarily mean depravity and could apply to common sexual activity.
Watson also wants a Pinellas County judge to decide whether the state law renders unconstitutional local fair-housing laws forbidding discrimination based on marital status.
Hooper, who is negotiating the case with the city and county, believes officials have no choice but to stand behind state law until it is removed or altered.
The dispute, meanwhile, has caused a stir in the sleepy 96-site park where residents 55 and older pedal around the well-kept grounds on three-wheeled bicycles. More than half spend winters here, returning to cooler climates to escape the summer.
“I believe it’s immoral for people not married to live together,” said Bernice Ulrey, a native of Indianapolis who has lived at the park since 1964.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” said a balding white-haired man from Pontiac, Mich., who wouldn’t give his name. Tenants are told the rules mean no overnight stays for unmarrieds, he said, adding: “What can you do at night that you can’t do during the day?”
Hooper calls the situation a Catch-22. On one hand state law bans cohabitation, but city and county law bans discrimination based on marital status.
The problem isn’t unique to this central Gulf Coast community, Hooper said.
“Most states have the same conflicts in laws. They differ in degree and detail. It’s a clash of new thoughts with old principles,” he said.
Some think the key to the case is in the interpretation of lewd and lascivious conduct.
“That is really something you wouldn’t know unless you looked through the windows,” said James Yates, director of human relations for the city.
Hooper disagrees. He thinks the terms could apply to an unmarried couple living together.
The city ordinance contains an exemption allowing a landlord to refuse to rent to an unmarried couple, Yates said. This was added at the behest of ministers.
But the county has no such exemption.
“It’s the county’s stand in this day and time we don’t consider cohabitation between two consenting adults to be lewd and lascivious behavior,” said Robert Reece of the Pinellas County Office of Human Rights.
Robert Herman, a 65-year-old retiree who shared a mobile home with his wife until she died three years ago, is among the residents upset with the lawsuit.
“He is passing moral judgment on me,” Herman said recently before heading back to New Jersey. Herman said he was told by Watson’s son he must sell his home, lease it or marry his girlfriend.
“He’s assuming that things are happening here,” Herman said.
But, said Hooper: “My client isn’t shooting at any individual. He’s sued the city and the county because they deserve it. They passed those ordinances that muddied the water.”
There are others who endorse Watson’s effort. “We’re behind the manager 100%,” said Oscar Bray, a retiree from the Ann Arbor, Mich., area.
Pinellas County Assistant Atty. Bill Falker said Watson assumes that people who are unrelated and living together are committing lewd and lascivious acts. “I don’t know if we can make that assumption. It certainly doesn’t seem so to me.”
