A Hayden-area couple was recently awarded $75,000 by a North Idaho jury, ending a lawsuit the couple filed against their homeowner’s association. According to the jury, the West Hayden States First Addition Homeowners Association “engaged in religious discrimination” against the couple in a case that has been dubbed a “war on Christmas” by many news outlets.
A Hayden-area couple was recently awarded $75,000 by a North Idaho jury, ending a lawsuit the couple filed against their homeowner’s association. According to the jury, the West Hayden States First Addition Homeowners Association “engaged in religious discrimination” against the couple in a case that has been dubbed a “war on Christmas” by many news outlets.
The suit was filed by Jeremy and Kristy Morris in U.S. District Court in Coeur d’Alene and argued that the HOA attempted to “block an extravagant Christmas program from taking place in their neighborhood.” The HOA pushed back, however, and countersued.
What happened, though? Well, the incident occurred in 2014 when the “HOA board of directors drafted the letter to the Morris’s saying if they wanted to move to the neighborhood, they’d have to scrap a plan to hold a five-day Christmas extravaganza on their property – an event that regularly drew thousands of people and featured elaborate Christmas lights, decorations, and live music,” according to the suit. The HOA drafted the letter after the couple informed it in December 2014 that they planned to “purchase a home in the neighborhood.” According to the suit, the couple “couple reviewed the association’s restrictions and found their planned Christmas program, which the couple said also raises money for families of cancer patients, didn’t violate any rules.”
The HOA letter read:
“It’s not the intention of the Board to discourage you from becoming part of our great neighborhood, but we do not wish to become entwined in any expensive litigation to enforce long-standing rules and regulations and fill our neighborhood with the hundreds of people and possible undesirables. We have worked hard to keep our area peaceful, quiet, and clean.”
The board argued that the couples Christmas party would end up violating many rules, including “noise limitations and lighting restrictions that would be excessively bright.” That wasn’t all, though. Towards the end of the letter, the HOA mentioned “Christians and faith, something Morris and his attorneys clung to as a clear violation of his family’s religious preference.” In fact, the letter read:
“…And finally, I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith. And I don’t even want to think of the problems that could bring up.”
Fortunately for the couple, the jury found that the HOA discriminated against them “during and after the purchase of their home in the 13000 block of Ferndale Drive.” Additionally, it also found that “a letter sent by the HOA in 2014 that said the Christmas program would violate the HOA’s covenants, conditions and restrictions showed a preference that a non-religious individual should purchase the home.”
As a result of the ruling, the couple will receive $15,000 in punitive damages and $60,000 in compensatory damages.
While pleased with the ruling, the couple plans to move away from the neighborhood, preferably someplace with more land to better accommodate their growing and widely popular Christmas party. In a statement he said:
“Our family will live wherever we want to live to spread the message of Jesus Christ and the birth of our savior. We’re looking forward. We’re positive. We’re excited.”
Sources:
Jury awards $75,000 to Hayden couple in ‘war on Christmas’ lawsuit
Jury awards $75,000 to Idaho couple in ‘war on Christmas’ lawsuit
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