Judge cancels Christmas

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

Calling its assessment erroneous, a federal judge overturned a jury’s decision this week in favor of Jeremy Morris, and ordered Morris to quit having Christmas galas at his home in a Hayden subdivision.

U.S. Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the jury’s verdict last year in favor of Morris was based on a lack of evidence, and that Morris had embellished testimony, was not credible as a witness and that his claims lacked veracity.

Morris is a Hayden attorney who — despite covenants, conditions and restrictions in place at the West Hayden Estates — hosted a carnival-like Christmas event at his home that violated the CC&Rs, and then sued the homeowners association when it objected.

Morris’ five-day event included 200,000 lights, commercial buses that brought 7,300 visitors to the rural neighborhood, a camel and donkey in a Nativity scene, amplified music and people dressed in costumes of the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Santa.

Morris accused the homeowners association of religious discrimination and of violating the Fair Housing Act.

A jury ruled in favor of Morris after an October trial, awarding him $75,000, but Peter J. Smith and Tara Malek, the Coeur d’Alene attorneys for the homeowners association, filed a motion during the trial and again after the trial criticizing the plaintiff Morris’ lack of evidence.

The post-verdict motion — called a Rule 50(b) — requires a judge to revisit the case and its evidence before making his or her own ruling.

In his order, Winmill concluded the jury “issued a legally unsupported verdict.”

Winmill said Morris’ program at the Ferndale Drive home Morris purchased in 2015 in the subdivision north of Lancaster Road, violated seven of the HOA’s CC&Rs and that Morris, at the trial, “was not credible.”

In evidence reviewed by the judge, Morris’ interactions with neighbors “show that he was aggressively confrontational with those homeowners and routinely threatened them with litigation.”

Morris’ testimony, Winmill wrote, was “riddled with inconsistencies … and was frequently contradicted by intrinsic evidence that he himself created.”

In one instance, Morris said a member of the homeowners association threatened to kill him. Testimony for the plaintiff used the supposed death threats continually throughout the trial, but when a recording was played of the alleged death threats, Winmill wrote, the threats were “an embellishment,” and “cannot be reasonably interpreted as a credible death threat.”

In another instance, Morris said the light show only lasted two days when in fact it lasted much longer. Winmill said that Morris offered little proof regarding his claims of discrimination based on his Christian religion, considering that many members of the association were themselves Christians, including the board president, who is married to a minister.

Winmill went so far as to question Morris’ claims for compensation. Morris told the jury that his moving costs — if he moved — would be around $60,000 and that the lawsuit agitated an undisclosed medical condition for which the jury ordered he be paid $15,000. Winmill said Morris “presented no evidence on what that condition is, or the extent to which it was aggravated.”

In his conclusion, Winmill wrote that the jury should not be faulted because its members acted in good faith. In his 31 years on the bench, Winmill wrote, he has disagreed with verdicts, but for the most part “deferred to the wisdom of our Founders, and trusted the jury’s collective mind.”

But, he wrote, “This case is simply different.”

Morris, he said, failed to show facts legally sufficient for a favorable ruling. In addition, Winmill wrote, the homeowners association is entitled to attorney fees, and that Morris is permanently prohibited from hosting a Christmas program at West Hayden Estates that violates the CC&Rs.

Winmill said he expects the case to be appealed to the Ninth Circuit.