Mintz Levin and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Settle Civil Rights Lawsuit on Behalf of Cape Verdean Community in Freetown, Massachusetts
4/29/2005
Residents of Freetown, MA to Receive Damages and Improvements from Town as part of Settlement in Discrimination Suit
Boston, MA: A federal judge has approved a settlement between the residents of a Cape Verdean community in southeastern Massachusetts and the town they say has discriminated against them. Lawyers from Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights jointly obtained this settlement for the plaintiffs in the case.
Residents of the 100-year-old Cape Verdean village on Braley Road in Freetown, Massachusetts, the only neighborhood of color in Freetown, filed suit in 2003 alleging that the town had violated their fair housing rights and environmental civil rights when it failed to correct an unsafe water pressure situation that the town created when it installed a municipal water system nearly 20 years ago, and when the town encouraged industrial development in their neighborhood while protecting other residents from industry. The plaintiffs also alleged that the town unjustly denied their church the right to expand its community space in retaliation for their complaints about the industrialization of their neighborhood.
The settlement requires the town to spend approximately $325,000 to install a booster pump to improve the water pressure along Braley Road, and to pay nearly $300,000 in damages to the plaintiffs. The town also agreed to give the plaintiffs credits toward their future water bills, and to provide the church with the necessary building permit, provided it meets all building and fire codes. Judge Patti Saris signed the settlement agreement, making it a court order, on April 27, 2005.
"This is an important victory for these residents, some of whom have had family on this street for generations," said Paul Wilson, a member of Mintz Levin's Litigation section, who represented the plaintiffs along with his colleagues Beth McCormack and Noah Shaw. "Discrimination comes in all shapes and sizes and this case was about treating everyone in the town the same, regardless of what neighborhood they live in."
"The Cape Verdean community in Freetown came together to protect the residential character of their neighborhood. We admire their courage and perseverance in fighting for their rights. We are extremely pleased that the Lawyers' Committee and Mintz, Levin could help them improve the quality of their lives and obtain compensation for all they had to endure," added Nadine Cohen, Esq., staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC is a multidisciplinary law firm with over 450 attorneys and senior professionals in Boston, Washington D.C., Reston, VA, New York, Stamford, CT, Los Angeles and London. Mintz Levin is distinguished by its reputation for responsive client service and expertise in the areas of antitrust and federal regulatory, bankruptcy; business and finance; communications; employment; environmental; health care; immigration; intellectual property; litigation; public finance; real estate; tax; and trust and estates.
Mintz Levin's international clientele range from privately held start-ups to Fortune 100 companies in a wide array of industries including biotechnology, venture capital, telecommunications, health care and high technology.
Mintz Levin was one of the first law firms to develop complementary consulting capabilities to provide complete solutions to clients' problems, including investment/wealth management, and government and public affairs.
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan legal organization formed to address racial and national origin discrimination in Boston and throughout Massachusetts. The Lawyers' Committee works in the areas of voting rights and redistricting, equal access to education, employment and housing discrimination, combating racial violence, police misconduct, fair lending/predatory lending, environmental justice and community economic development. Founded in 1968 by the leading lawyers, law firms and law schools in Boston, the Lawyers' Committee is the first of what are now eight local affiliates of the Washington-based national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, which was created in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in the fight against racial discrimination.
