## Facts

- Public-housing tenants brought four consolidated, putative class actions against the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and officials.
- The suits sought declaratory and injunctive relief (and, in some actions, damages) under federal civil-rights jurisdiction, alleging Fourteenth Amendment due process violations in NYCHA enforcement practices.
- Tenants challenged three categories of NYCHA actions:
  - Termination of tenancy for “nondesirability.”
  - Termination of tenancy for alleged violations of NYCHA rules and regulations.
  - Assessment of “additional rent” (penalty charges) for alleged tenant misconduct.
- Tenants alleged procedural deficiencies including vague or inadequate notice, lack of a meaningful opportunity to contest allegations, and reliance on undisclosed reports (including police information) that tenants could not confront or rebut.
- Tenants alleged that “additional rent” penalties were assessed and collected without prior hearing or adequate procedural protections.
- The district court dismissed all actions on the pleadings.
- On appeal, the court treated the allegations as true because the cases were dismissed at the pleading stage.

## Issues

1. Whether the complaints stated claims under federal civil-rights jurisdiction for denial of due process in NYCHA evictions (for “nondesirability” and rule violations) and “additional rent” penalty assessments.
2. Whether it was proper to dismiss these civil-rights due process challenges on the pleadings without factual development.
3. Whether alleged lack of adequate notice, inability to know and meet the evidence, and absence of a fair hearing could constitute unconstitutional procedures in public housing administration.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the dismissals and remanded.
- The court held the allegations challenging NYCHA procedures for “nondesirability” terminations, rule-violation terminations, and “additional rent” assessments stated claims for relief.
- The court ruled that, in civil-rights cases, dismissal at the pleading stage is improper unless it appears to a certainty that plaintiffs can prove no set of facts entitling them to relief.
- The court remanded for consideration of preliminary relief and for further proceedings, including a trial on the merits.

## Legal Principles

- On a motion to dismiss, courts must accept as true the complaint’s well-pleaded factual allegations and supporting affidavits.
- Civil-rights complaints are construed liberally and ordinarily should not be dismissed on the pleadings unless no provable facts could support relief.
- Public-housing tenants may possess protectable interests in continued occupancy and in freedom from arbitrary financial penalties, triggering Fourteenth Amendment procedural due process constraints.
- Allegations that a public housing authority used vague notices, undisclosed adverse information, and procedures lacking a meaningful hearing can state a due process claim.
- Assessment of penalty-type “additional rent” may constitute a property deprivation requiring procedural safeguards, depending on the facts developed.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that public-housing tenants plausibly alleged due process violations in NYCHA eviction and penalty-rent practices and that the district court erred by dismissing the civil-rights suits on the pleadings without factual development.


Escalera v. N.Y.C. Hous. Auth., 425 F.2d 853 (2d Cir. 1970)