Daily Business Review: Man Sues Condo Association For Right To Keep Dog As Service Animal
Samantha Joseph, Daily Business Review
July 31, 2014
A condominium association has been fighting it out in court for nearly one year with a homeowner who sued when the association moved to ban his dog. The dog’s breed and function are at the center of a lawsuit that pits countywide breed restrictions against Fair Housing Act protections for disabled residents with service animals. The plaintiff, Alexander Warren, asked Miami’s Del Vista Towers Condominium Association to overlook its “no-pet” policy to accommodate his dog, Amir—a service animal, according to Warren.
When the association refused, Warren filed suit in Southern District court, claiming failure to reasonably accommodate. But the condo association asked Judge Jose Martinez for a summary judgment and hinged its argument on the dog’s breed. It argued that Warren’s case was baseless, because his dog is a pit bull—a restricted breed under Miami-Dade regulations. Del Vista Towers figured Warren did not have a case because of Miami-Dade’s countywide ban on pit bulls. But Martinez didn’t think the case was so clear-cut. On Tuesday, he denied the condo association’s motion for summary judgment. Read more: