No Hot Water Leads To Boiling Frustration

By: Anonymous Watcher

The clerk calls the next case. The defendant is not present. The judge asked her to leave the courtroom when her toddler, who can’t be older than 2, was playing and cooing. The tenant (defendant) returns with her child and the judge asks the plaintiff how much money is owed. He answers: $3,000. The judge asks the tenant if she agrees. She answers “no”. Before she is given the chance to explain, the judge suggests that the two go outside in the hallway to find a solution.
            Minutes later, there is yelling outside the courtroom. “You will not get ANYTHING!” asserts the tenant, presumably to her landlord. She tells him that she hasn’t had hot water in months, and that she won’t pay the rent until it is fixed. The judge sends his bailiff out to defuse the situation.

            The plaintiff returns to the courtroom without the tenant. The bailiff has removed her from the courthouse, along with her small child.

“Let the record show that [the defendant] was being extremely loud and abusive,” states the judge. He makes no mention of the woman’s claim that the rental property does not have hot water, even though, it’s the middle of winter and she has a toddler. The tenant never had the opportunity to assert a request for escrow or explain why the landlord is not entitled to the full amount of rent.