Wabanaki Legal News
| A publication of Pine Tree Legal Assistance |
Summer 2001
Pine Tree Case Summaries
Table of Contents
Education
Family Law
Special Education
Housing
Housing and Handicaps
The following are summaries of some of the cases Pine Tree Native American Unit attorneys have handled over the last six months. You can call attorneys Craig Sanborn or Mike Guare or paralegal Danny Mills at 1-800-879-7463.
The client was a Passamaquoddy woman living in Bangor who was denied readmission at a local university because she had not reimbursed the school for an overpayment in grant monies. The school refused to allow admission until the overpayment was paid in full. After a short investigation, Craig Sanborn discovered that the original overpayment had been the result of a mutual misunderstanding between the parties. Craig was able to convince the school to enter into a more reasonable repayment plan that allowed the client to start classes as the debt was slowly being paid off.
The client had gotten a Protection from Abuse Order against her husband. She contacted Pine Tree in order to defend against Protection from Harassment complaints filed by her husband and his girlfriend. The client also asked Pine Tree to represent her in her Divorce Complaint. With Craig's help, both the husband and his girlfriend's charges were dismissed. The client was also able to get her divorce, get sole custody of her child, and have the Court order that visitation by the ex-husband with their child be supervised.
The client came to Pine Tree because her multi-handicapped child had missed a lot of school because the school was unable to maintain appropriate staffing levels (when a teacher was not available the child was not allowed to come to school). After meeting with Craig, the school acknowledged its failure to properly educate the child as directed by law, and offered to provide the child compensatory education in order to make up for the time lost. The parties were able to quickly work out an acceptable scheduling agreement.
The client lived off-reservation at an inn in Bangor, paying rent weekly. The client lost his job and fell behind in his rent. The owner of the inn locked the client out of his room, locked up all of his belongings and told him that he could not have his things back until he paid his rent. The client came to Pine Tree for help. Mike Guare advised him that, under the law, the owner of a hotel or an inn can do this to a guest who doesn't pay a room charge, but a landlord cannot do this to a tenant who doesn't pay the rent. In this case, Mike felt that the owner was acting more like a landlord than a hotel owner. Among other things, the client received no maid service, did all the laundry (including the sheets and towels), took out his own trash, and cooked in his room. Mike filed a case in court saying that the owner was really a landlord and that it was illegal for the owner to refuse to give our client his possessions. The owner agreed to return the client's property.
Case Five: Housing and Handicaps
The client lived at a local housing authority. He had a number of handicaps that made it very hard to keep his apartment clean. He was being evicted because the housing authority said his apartment was too dirty. The client came to Pine Tree for help. Mike advised him that landlords must offer a reasonable accommodation to handicapped tenants. In this case, Mike asked for a hearing with the housing authority and argued that the handicapped tenant should not be evicted before he had a chance to get some help to keep his apartment clean. Mike won at the hearing and the client was able to stay in his apartment.
