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Dan Shingler 05/19/03: (Albuquerque Tribune) Pop quiz: In which country can a
tenant be evicted for protesting against the government?
Answer: The United States of America.
That's what the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees
Union's District 1199, based in Albuquerque, found out last month when
they were evicted from their offices on San Mateo Boulevard.
According to the complaint filed by their landlord, Carroll Ventures
Inc., the union "breached the terms of its lease by holding an
anti-war demonstration. . . ."
The group also "created a nuisance and interrupted other
tenant's quiet enjoyment of the premises," the complaint states.
The union local definitely held an antiwar demonstration, but it was
at the intersection of San Mateo Boulevard and Cutler Avenue, and not at
its offices at 2403 San Mateo Blvd. N.E., said Hospital Workers Union
Director Eleanor Chavez.
As for disturbing other tenants, Chavez said the group met in the
building's clubhouse, which it had reserved and used as a staging area
for the event, but that meeting took place after 5 p.m. on a Friday
evening, March 7, Chavez said. The police came, at the landlord's
request, but left when they determined the group was not disturbing
anyone, Chavez said.
Chavez said she believes the union was evicted not because its
meeting disturbed other tenants but because its antiwar stance disturbed
Carolyn Mason and her family. Mason is president of Carroll Ventures
Inc., landlord at the Home Office Plaza building that the union occupied
on San Mateo.
"It's kind of scary," Chavez said. "What's happening
in this country? We talk about going to war with Iraq to defend freedom.
Well, how do you define freedom?"
Mason was contacted but declined to comment on the matter.
The union lost its case in court in part because it failed to answer
the complaint lodged against it. Chavez said she believed her attorney
was handling he matter, but has since learned that he did not file a
response with the court. As a result, state District Judge Geraldine
Rivera accepted the charges against the union as fact and entered a
default judgment against it.
In addition to being evicted, the union was ordered to pay Carroll
Ventures attorney fees of $600 and court costs of $152.
Chavez has hired a new attorney and said the union will seek to have
the judgment overturned.
The union's new attorney, civil rights and labor lawyer Linda Vanzi,
said she hopes to convince the court to rehear the case on its merits.
"I have a hard time believing anyone who has a peaceful
demonstration would be violating a lease," Chavez said.
The group might not be able to show that it did not violate its
lease. But in any event, First Amendment rights don't come into play
when it comes to disputes on private property, said Peter Simonson,
executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.
Simonson said that, in addition to the Hospital Workers Union, he has
heard of tenants in apartment complexes and even members of homeowners
associations who have been told they can't have antiwar signs on
display.
"It really points out how little protection we have for our free
speech in both the state and U.S. constitutions," Simonson said.
The union has relocated into an office it has leased from another
labor organization. Danny Esquibil, president of the United Food &
Commercial Workers Union in Albuquerque, said the union has nothing to
worry about from its new landlord.
"I said, `Here, you're among friends, you can say whatever you
want,'" Esquibil said.
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