## Facts

- Fernwood Mobile Home Park (Fernwood) operated in California beginning in 1970 as an adults-only mobile-home community.
- After federal fair-housing law required the park to accept families with children, Fernwood adopted rules and regulations that barred or tightly limited common forms of children’s outdoor play and use of shared areas.
- Angelina Almeyda bought a mobile home in Fernwood for herself, her husband, and their three children after the family needed a stable place to live.
- The Almeydas signed Fernwood’s rules despite being warned by the park’s manager that the children would not like living there under those restrictions.
- Disputes arose after move-in about the children’s activities and alleged rule violations.
- Fernwood sued the Almeydas for breach of contract and abatement of nuisance based on purported rule violations.
- The Almeydas filed a cross-complaint alleging negligence and unlawful discrimination against families with children (familial-status discrimination).
- After trial, the court entered a permanent injunction barring Fernwood from unlawful discrimination against families with children.
- While ruling on post-trial motions, the trial judge made inflammatory remarks comparing the park and its owners to Nazis and Nazi camps, including calling the owners “park Nazis,” and analogizing the owners’ claimed ignorance of discrimination to denial of Nazi atrocities.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial judge’s post-trial Nazi comparisons and related comments showed judicial bias requiring reversal of the judgment and reassignment for a new trial.
2. Whether the evidence supported a finding that Fernwood’s rules and their enforcement amounted to unlawful familial-status discrimination.
3. Whether a permanent injunction prohibiting unlawful discrimination against families with children was an authorized and appropriate remedy on this record.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment granting injunctive relief against Fernwood.
- The court held the judge’s comments were improper and intemperate, but they did not require reversal because they occurred in the post-trial context and did not demonstrate that the judge was unable to decide the case fairly based on the evidence presented.
- The court upheld the trial court’s determination that Fernwood’s rules and practices functioned to deny families with children equal enjoyment of the housing and common areas.
- The court upheld the permanent injunction prohibiting Fernwood from engaging in unlawful discrimination against families with children.

## Legal Principles

- Fair-housing protections for “familial status” reach beyond outright refusals to sell or rent and include rules, terms, or conditions that, in operation, burden families with children in ways not imposed on other residents.
- Rules aimed at children may be unlawful when they effectively restrict normal, age-appropriate activities so severely that families with children are denied equal use and enjoyment of their homes and common areas.
- Judicial-bias reversal requires more than rude, excessive, or offensive courtroom remarks; the record must show actual bias or a probability of unfairness that makes a fair proceeding impossible.
- The timing and context of a judge’s statements matter; remarks made after trial while addressing post-trial motions are less likely to show prejudgment of disputed facts.
- Permanent injunctive relief is an accepted remedy to prevent continuation of unlawful housing discrimination where the record supports a risk of recurrence without court intervention.

## Conclusion

Fernwood’s sweeping restrictions on children’s ordinary outdoor activities, and the way those restrictions were used, supported a finding of familial-status discrimination and justified a permanent injunction barring unlawful discrimination against families with children. Although the trial judge’s post-trial Nazi analogies were inappropriate, the Court of Appeal concluded they did not establish disqualifying bias requiring reversal or reassignment, and it affirmed the judgment and injunction.


Fernwood Mobile Home Park v. Almeyda, 2002 WL 31862850 (2002)