Harris v. Gaul

OPINION AND ORDER

ANN ALDRICH, District Judge.

This litigation presents a troubling question: did a statutory scheme, whose commendable purpose is to control urban blight by expediting foreclosure of tax delinquent properties, deprive the plaintiff of a significant property interest — her home — without due process? In 1969, Verda Harris purchased a Cleveland house under a recorded land contract, lived there and made payments for more than a decade, and then discovered in 1981 that the city had sold the house at a tax sale of which she had no actual notice. She challenges the constitutionality…