SANTA ANA : Disabled Man Files Suit Over Eviction

The attorney for a disabled Orange Coast College student who gets to class with the help of his dog filed a motion Thursday seeking to dismiss an apartment eviction of the man and his dog.

Moses Hall, attorney for student Jeff Smithling, said he is asking the Central Orange Municipal Court to dismiss the eviction because it discriminates against a disabled person.

But Steven D. Silverstein, attorney for the Villa Marseilles apartments on Bristol Street, contends that the eviction effort is not discriminatory. Silverstein said the eviction notice is aimed at the two women who actually rent the apartment and who allowed Smithling to live with them as a guest.

“We’re seeking the (eviction) action because they had additional people in that apartment who wanted to stay permanently,” Silverstein said. “And we’re also acting because there have been four complaints from other (apartment complex) residents about the pit bull. Some people are afraid of that pit bull.”

Smithling, 29, has had both of his legs amputated because of a lifelong arthritic disease. He gets around, including to his college classes, by being pulled on a skateboard by his dog, Lightning. The animal is a Staffordshire terrier, a member of the pit bull family.

Hall charged Thursday that the apartment complex did not name Smithling directly in its eviction notice because the owners realized they would be discriminating against a handicapped man. “They knew what they were doing was discriminatory, and so they put the names (of the two women roommates) on the unlawful detainer (eviction notice),” Hall charged.

“What they tried to do is subvert the system. . . . What they are trying to do is discriminatory.”

Silverstein, however, said the two roommates, Deborah Jakubowicz and Tracy Sobek, were named in the eviction notice because they are the legal tenants of the apartment.

Hall said the dog is clearly a “service dog” for a disabled person and thus protected by state law from discriminatory acts.

Hall’s motion to have the eviction dismissed is scheduled to be heard Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Central Municipal Court.