Ruling Backs Woman Whose Water Was Shut Off

The city of Seattle violated a tenant’s rights by refusing to turn on her water because the previous tenant had failed to pay a water bill, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The city’s policy discriminates unconstitutionally against tenants whose predecessors owed money for water, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said.

“Proclaiming a goal of collecting the debt from anyone willing to pay does not give the city license to pursue payment by refusing water service to an unrelated, unobligated third party,” Judge Robert Beezer said in the 3-0 ruling.

The case involved Maria O’Neal, who rented a single-family residence in Seattle in early 1993. She was a single mother with a young child and little income who had just moved out of her mother’s home, said attorney Janet Helson of Evergreen Legal Services.

The former tenants had failed to pay their water bill, prompting the city, which runs the local water service, to shut off the water. It was illegally restored without O’Neal’s knowledge, but was shut off again after she applied for her own water account, the court said. The city told her she could not get water until the bill was paid, and suggested she contact the owner.

Water service was restored 10 days later, after O’Neal sued the city and the bill was paid by the owner, Helson said. She said O’Neal had to haul water in big trashcans and send her ailing child to her mother’s home for part of the time.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled that the city had violated O’Neal’s rights and barred enforcement of the policy against any tenant. She was awarded $3,000 in damages and more than $38,000 in legal fees.

The appeals court overturned Coughenour’s injunction against the city, saying it was improper because the suit had not been approved as a class action and because O’Neal was not threatened with another water shutoff. But the court said the city’s policy was invalid.

The city has a right to collect debts from landlords, but cannot do so by refusing water service to a new tenant who was not responsible for the debt, Beezer said.

Assistant City Attorney Brian Faller said cases like O’Neal’s are uncommon, but he feared they would become more frequent because of the ruling.

“The problem we have with this decision is that it allows the landlords to circumvent the shutoff simply by bringing in a new tenant,” Faller said.