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HAMMOND — A landlord has found himself on the wrong side of another judicial ruling in his nine-year struggle with city officials.

U.S. District Court Judge Theresa Springmann decided Wednesday, for the second time in 13 months, she won’t take up Jose Andrade’s claims that he is a victim of discrimination.

Hammond Corporation Counsel Kevin Smith said Wednesday that city officials are pleased with this latest ruling.

Patrick McEuen, an attorney for Andrade, said Friday they are considering an appeal of the ruling.

The dispute began in May 2013 when a Hammond city inspector notified Andrade that his two-story, five-unit apartment building in the 6600 block of Jefferson Avenue near Hammond’s Edison Park was structurally unsafe.

The inspector found the building lacked fire-resistant walls to impede smoke and flames from spreading so quickly it might entrap tenants.

Andrade and city officials have since fought over the city’s authority to impose fire walls.

The city said the 95-year-old property didn’t have the necessary safety features required in a city apartment building because it was a single-family home that was illegally converted to a multi-unit apartment building.

Andrade insisted the building was never a single-family home.

The Hammond Board of Public Works and Safety sided with the inspector in 2017 — following lengthy litigation in state court. A state judge upheld the city inspector and safety board’s findings of a fire hazard in 2018. So did the Indiana Court of Appeals later that same year. The Indiana Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Andrade tried another route in 2019, filing suit against the city in federal court.

Andrade’s lawyer argued newly discovered evidence indicated the city violated Andrade’s right to a fair hearing to pursue an illegal policy of denying subsidized apartments in more desirable neighborhoods of Hammond.

Springmann threw Andrade’s suit out of court in 2020, ruling Andrade couldn’t use the federal courts to bypass his defeat in Indiana state courts.

However, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals judges in Chicago disagreed last year and returned the case to Springmann for further consideration.

On Wednesday, Springmann declared in a 17-page opinion that she was right before, and that Andrade truly exhausted his legal remedies four years ago when a state court judge found his rental property was a fire hazard that city officials can penalize unless improvements are made to fire safety.

In a statement Friday, McEuen argued the judges are missing "the fundamental issue: Hammond can only enforce 21st century building safety standards against a 20th Century multi-unit dwelling by lying about the original construction."

McEuen said they believe the city has taken action against Andrade because he accepts rent-subsidized tenants.

"Not even the Hammond inspectors claim that 21st Century 'fire stop' can be imposed on 90-year-old buildings unless the property is substantially remodeled. Jose Andrade’s building has never been a single family dwelling," McEuen said.

Originally published on nwitimes.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange.

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