The plaintiffs filed suit under the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604, on April 24, 1974, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Southern Ohio. The plaintiffs, a white married couple, approached the Defendant-savings and loan about obtaining a loan for a home purchase in a racially integrated neighborhood in Cincinnati. The plaintiffs alleged that they were denied credit on the basis of the racial composition of the neighborhood in which they desired to purchase property. Originally filed as a class action, the plaintiffs eventually pursued the case as a damages claim based on the less favorable terms of credit that they obtained from another lending institution to purchase their home.

The plaintiffs alleged that the Defendant's denial of credit for a home purchase effectively made "unavailable... [a] dwelling" in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 3604. One of the plaintiffs was also a civil rights attorney, and he litigated the case on a pro se basis. The plaintiffs were also represented in part by lawyers from the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (NCDH), a Washington, D.C.-based fair housing non-profit. On June 18, 1975, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the plaintiffs' position. Laufman v. Oakley Bldg. & Loan Co., 404 F. Supp. 791 (S.D. Ohio 1975) (rejecting Defendants' attempt to prevent the United States Department of Justice from filing an amicus brief in the case).

U.S. District Court Judge David S. Porter denied the Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment on February 13, 1976, making this the first case in which a federal court held that race-based lending discrimination violates the Fair Housing Act. Laufman v. Oakley Bldg. & Loan Co., 408 F. Supp. 489 (S.D. Ohio 1976). The litigants eventually settled the case out of court. One of the terms of the settlement agreement was the creation of a lending monitoring board for the City of Cincinnati.

Andrew Nash - 06/02/2008


compress summary