By Jim Young
A lawsuit has been filed in federal
court against the City of Crossville and numerous city employees over
the closing of the Village inn in July of 2022 and the eviction of
all residents. A request to make the case a class action suit has
also been made in the filing.
The suit is seeking compensatory and
punitive damages against all defendants, in amounts to be proven at
trial, Recovery of costs, including reasonable attorney fees, and
all other relief to which they may be entitled.
In addition to the City, others named
in the lawsuit are Police Chief Jessie Brooks, Fire Chief Chris South
along with city employees Koby Wilson, Zach Young, John Doe 1-10 who
are officers with the Crossville police department, Danny Thurman,
Casey Worsham, Thomas Smith, Terry L. Poter, and Jeremy Mangas.
Village Inn (file photo by Jim Young)
The lawsuit alleges that those
defendants unlawfully seized the plaintiffs' apartments, evicting
them from their apartments and depriving them of possession without
any due process. Plaintiffs allege that in a very coordinated effort,
employees of the City of Crossville, Tennessee systematically
wrongfully seized plaintiff’s apartments wrongfully evicting them
from their apartments without any notice or court order. Working in
concert, Defendants forced the Plaintiffs to vacate the apartments
that they rented, without cause or notice or judicial order, despite
the fact that City had attempted to evict the residents several times
in the last few years only to be denied an order signed by judge;
this time, the City employees came to the apartment complex forcibly
evicting all residents of the complex with no notice or court order.
The Plaintiffs claim that these officers' conduct violated clearly
established rights protected by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments
to the United States Constitution and Tennessee law and without any
objectively reasonable grounds for doing so.
During
the course of a narcotics investigation, conditions of the building
and safety concerns were found which required Fire Safety inspections
and codes compliance checks. The result of the inspection led to the
power to the entire facility to be pulled and an immediate habitation
ban to be issued. Immediately noticed were areas of overhead walkway
concrete deterioration and missing/falling concrete were observed.
Handrails and support posts were found broken, loose and hanging.
Water standing in the floor of an occupied unit, required residents
to walk on boards to stay out of the potentially hazardous water.
The
lawsuit against the city has been filed by Livingston Attorney John
Nisbet who represented numerous victims of former
County solid waste director Mark Harvel in a suit against Cumberland
County that netted some $1.1 Million.
Village Inn residents listed as
plaintiffs in the suit include Christopher Duff, Starlene Gilbert,
Boyd Alan Kearley, Jackie Laesch. John Lewis, Domenica Palmer, Weldon
Bruce Palmer II, Wanda Rupe, Brandy Nicole Story and Sharon Williams,
on behalf of themselves and those similarly situated.
Early this year the City bought the Village Inn and appears to have plans to tear down the building.
Crossville City Attorney Randy York was
unavailable for comment when his office was contacted. We will
report any comments if they are received.
