The Ilinois First District Appellate Court, on Oct. 28, upheld a Cook County Circuit Court decision awarding more than $68,000 in legal fees to a lesbian couple who claimed they were harassed by their condominium's owners association.
The story was reported by Cook County Record on Nov. 1.
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations awarded those fees to Pat Gilbert and Vernita Gray after Gilbert filed a March 2001 complaint with the Commission, alleging that 7355 South Shore Drive Condominium Association and its president, Shelley Norton, tried to prevent her from purchasing a unit because she was white and a lesbian. Gray, a longtime LGBT-rights activist, filed an additional complaint that month alleging anti-gay comments and ongoing harassment.
Gray's belongings were removed from her unit at the behest of the Association after she stopped paying fees when, she alleged, building officials cut off communications with her. That removal came even after a judge ordered eviction proceedings be vacated, since Gray was never notified of the proceedings.
The Commission's case languished for many years in part due to the first hearing officer's poor health. A subsequent hearing officer said he did not need to rehear testimony, and eventually rejected Gilbert and Gray's racial discrimination claims; he did, however, accept the women's other discrimination claims.
The condominium association maintained that it had been denied due process and tried to get the ruling on the legal fees overturned. A Cook County court affirmed the Commission's decision in Feb. 2014.
Justice Robert E. Gordon issued the Oct. 28 order. Gray passed away in March 2014. Just a few months earlier, she and her partner at the time, Pat Ewert, became the first same-sex couple to be legally wed in the state.
Cook County Record's story is at bit.ly/2fejYV6.