## Facts

- Edouard leased an apartment from Kozubal, the building owner and landlord.
- After the tenancy began, Kozubal sought personal and sexual attention from Edouard, including asking her out and tying the request to housing-related financial terms (including an offer related to reducing the rental deposit).
- Kozubal repeatedly telephoned Edouard, asking her with a sexual connotation to “help” him.
- Kozubal engaged in unwelcome physical contact, including slapping Edouard on the buttocks.
- Kozubal later escalated the conduct to more serious sexual touching in the apartment building, including squeezing Edouard’s breasts and nipples, pushing her to the ground, and attempting to force sexual contact; Edouard resisted and escaped.
- Edouard filed a complaint and obtained a restraining order against Kozubal.
- A few weeks after the restraining order issued, Kozubal confronted Edouard and told her she could remain in the apartment rent-free for the rest of the lease term if she dropped her case; the confrontation violated the restraining order.
- Edouard reported significant emotional effects from the harassment and assault, including fear and depression, diminished self-esteem, and the need for therapy.

## Issues

1. Whether a landlord’s sexual harassment of a tenant can constitute unlawful sex discrimination in housing under Massachusetts law, using sexual-harassment standards developed in employment cases.
2. Whether emotional-distress damages may be awarded in an MCAD housing-discrimination case based on sexual harassment by a landlord.

## Decision

- The MCAD found in favor of Edouard on her sex-discrimination claim based on Kozubal’s sexual harassment in connection with her tenancy.
- The MCAD treated sexual harassment in the housing setting as actionable sex discrimination, applying familiar analytical categories used in discrimination law.
- The MCAD concluded the evidence showed both housing-related quid pro quo conduct (conditioning favorable housing terms on submission to sexual demands) and severe misconduct that created an abusive, hostile living environment.
- The MCAD awarded damages, including compensation for Edouard’s emotional distress caused by the discriminatory harassment.

## Legal Principles

- Sexual harassment by a landlord directed at a tenant may constitute unlawful sex discrimination in housing when it affects the terms, conditions, or privileges of rental housing.
- Quid pro quo sexual harassment in housing can be shown when a landlord conditions housing benefits (or avoidance of housing burdens) on a tenant’s submission to unwelcome sexual conduct.
- A hostile housing environment may be established by severe or pervasive unwelcome sexual conduct that interferes with a tenant’s use and enjoyment of the premises.
- In an MCAD housing-discrimination proceeding, a complainant who proves sexual-harassment-based sex discrimination may recover damages for resulting emotional distress.

## Conclusion

In *Edouard v. Kozubal*, the MCAD held that a landlord’s sexually coercive demands and escalating sexual misconduct toward a tenant constituted actionable sex discrimination in housing, and it awarded emotional-distress damages based on the harm caused by the harassment and assault.


Edouard v. Kozubal, 2002 Mass. Commn. Discrim. LEXIS 154 (2002)