A Black woman who filed a lawsuit against her racist neighbor following years of abuse in Waterbury, Connecticut, received an unfavorable ruling from the Connecticut Supreme Court on June 27.
The court ruled that Kelly Howard isn’t entitled to more than $15,000 in damages for the emotional distress she reportedly suffered at the hands of her neighbor, Richard Cantillon.
Howard filed a lawsuit with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities against Cantillon, on June 8, 2015, after Cantillon repeatedly called her the N-word and threatened to kill her on multiple occasions.
The harassment first began after Howard bought a condominium in Waterbury in January 2009 on Perkins Avenue. Soon after moving in, Cantillon verbally and physically harassed Howard. Cantillon also flashed his middle finger at Howard as she walked her dog or went to the garbage dumpster and called her the N-word several times per week.
Part of the lawsuit states, “Subsequent to the January 21, 2009, association meeting, and ongoing since that time, the respondent has regularly called complainant a ‘n—r,’ given her the middle finger, or engaged in other obscene-gesture harassment when he encounters her outside her condominium unit. Such incidents occurred between two and five times a week.”
According to the lawsuit, Cantillon was arrested on two separate occasions for his harassment; once during a condominium association meeting in January 2009, and again in February 2015, after he threatened to hit Howard with a shovel as she shoveled snow.
“The respondent said ‘n—rs don’t belong here’ and lifted his own shovel to hit her,” read the complaint. Howard blocked Cantillon’s shovel with her own, but they were both arrested. On Feb. 23, 2015, Cantillon walked past Howard’s door and yelled “I’m still going to get you, n—r.” He also allegedly threatened to get his gun and shoot Howard.
Cantillon also called Howard’s boyfriend the N-word multiple times and called her daughter, “fat black n—r,” the complaint also states. Cantillon was accused in the complaint of violating the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Howard was awarded $15,000 by a referee after Cantillon failed to appear at a hearing, despite Howard requesting $75,000 for emotional distress.
The Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities appealed the $15,000 amount on Howard’s behalf, citing a case where the minimum amount for emotional distress was set at $30,000. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the minimum amount had to be set by the Legislature and the referee was “in the best position” to access Howard’s “internal distress.”
“If some minimum award for garden-variety emotional distress damages is to be established for such heinous conduct, then that minimum amount must be established by the legislature, either independently, via legislation, or in conjunction with the commission,” the court ruling stated.
“We have little doubt that Cantillon’s heinous conduct reasonably could have resulted in a damages award many times higher. But the referee, as the finder of fact, was in the best position to assess the necessarily uncertain nature and degree of the complainant’s internal distress.”
