Dorothy Singleton v. Hilda Gendason and Edward Gendason

The appellants appeal from a summary judgment in favor of the appellees, the Gendasons, in a housing discrimination suit brought under Title VIII of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604 (1973) and under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1982 (1974). The district court held that the single-family exemption, 42 U.S.C. § 3603 (b)(1) (1973), removed the appellees’ conduct from Title VIII; and, without further comment, that the appellants’ Section 1982 claim was similarly barred. Apparently, the lower court concluded that since Title VIII and Section 1982 both deal with housing discrimination, any exemption barring a Title VIII action should also bar a suit brought under Section 1982. We hold that Section 3603(b)(1). does not bar the appellants’ Title VIII claim, and we remand both the Title VIII and Section 1982 claims for relief.

The appellants are three black women who allege that the appellees racially discriminated against them in refusing to rent them an unfurnished three-bedroom single-family house in San Francisco in 1974. Appellees were lessees of the house and were seeking a sublessee for it. The owners of the house (the appellees’ lessors) are Lola and Selig…