Review of LDF Involvement in Civil Rights Enforcement: Health & Housing

    322 

Momorandum 

December 27, 1978 
Page Three 

Housing 

We won a victory in Sandford v. R.L. Coleman Realty Co. 

iInc., when the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a dis- 

trict judge's refusal to grant injunctive relief barring further 

discrimination by a realty firm. LDF had urged that simple 

findings of discrimination absent prospective injunctive relief 

were insufficient to ensure equal treatment in the future, and 

the Court of Appeals agreed. We also continued to challenge 

racial discrimination by real estate brokers in Milwaukee, Phil- 

adelphia, New Haven and New York. 



ay MEMORANDUM 

December 27, 1978 

REVIEW OF LDF INVOLVEMENT IN CIVIL RIGHTS 
ENFORCEMENT: HEALTH & HOUSING 

Beth J. Lief 

Health 

Our major efforts this year focused on stemming 

the tide of "runaway hospitals," hospitals which desert low- 

income minority neighborhoods to relocate in whole or in part 

to white affluent suburbs, and which drain revenue, staff and 

equipment from central cities. The key case in this effort 

was Hatcher v. Methodist Hospital of Gary, Ind. We represent 

Mayor Hatcher, and a class of black residents of Gary, Indi- 

ana who challenged a hospital's use of federal funds to build 

a facility in an all white suburb to the south of Gary, thus 

creating a segregated health care system that provided inferior 

care to black and poor residents of Gary. Also named as a 

defendant in this suit was the U.S. Department of Health, Edu- 

cation and Welfare, which is responsible for enforcing compliance 

with civil rights laws by hospitals and health planning agencies 

which receive federal financial assistance. Plaintiffs charyed 

HEW with violating its civil rights responsibilities not only 

by funding Methodist Hospital of Gary, Inc., but also by failing 

to promulgate any standards for or to ensure civil rights compli- 



oe 

Memorandum 
December 27, 1978 
Page 2 

ance by health facilities and agencies. As a result of the 

lawsuit, we have begun to work with HEW toward development 

of civil rights regulations and guidelines in the area of 

health planning and delivery services. Recently, we testi- 

fied in support of one such set of tentative guidelines 

HEW issued for Hill-Burton hospitals which includes major 

new provisions to ensure lack of discrimination in health 

care services. 

In Gary, a tentative settlement has been reached 

regarding the Gary hospital, but the terms of the settle- 

ment are not to be made public yet by order of the district 

court. We believe the settlement will be considered fair 

and just. Although it thus appears that the Gary case will 

not be tried, similar issues are headed for a trial next 

year in San Antonio, Texas. We represent not only the 

City of San Antonio, but a host of organizations and low- 

income minority women who challenge the relocation of 

county hospital inpatient maternity services from the central 

city to an inaccessible location in an affluent, white neigh- 

borhood. In addition to the private suit, we succeeded in 

convincing the Justice Department also to file suit chal- 

lenging the relocation. This is the first time the Justice 

Department has gone to federal court on this issue. The 

two cases are now consolidated and trial is set for April, 

ARS ESYS