Retaliation Claims in the Greystar Record, and How They Turned Out

Four matters, four different outcomes: one pending, one that closed without a judgment for the plaintiff, one with no outcome on file, and one closed after a regional order.

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Retaliation is one of the most serious things a tenant or employee can allege: that raising a concern led to punishment. It is also hard to prove. Four retaliation matters appear in The Greystar Review, and their outcomes are mixed. This is a small slice of the record and says nothing about how often retaliation happens.

Pending: a Littleton tenant and silica dust

A former tenant sued Greystar Management Services and a concrete contractor, alleging he was exposed to silica dust from concrete work, reported it to Greystar and to OSHA, and was then evicted. According to Denver7's report, OSHA fined the contractor more than $58,000. The eviction, the tenant alleges, followed his reports. The stated reason was that he had allegedly photographed the vendors without their consent.

Greystar denies most of the allegations and says it had no control over the contractor's work. The case was pending as reported.

Closed without a judgment for the plaintiff: Hall v. Greystar

A former tenant sued Greystar Management Services, a landscaping contractor and a sheriff's lieutenant, alleging Fair Housing Act retaliation, conversion and constitutional claims. The claims arose from the alleged deprivation of her personal property during a December 2011 eviction. The case went to the Fourth Circuit and back, the district court issued further rulings in 2016, and the docket closed in February 2017 without a judgment for the plaintiff.

Outcome not found: an EEOC suit over a reference

In 2009, the EEOC sued Greystar Holdings, alleging that the company gave a former employee a negative reference and recommended against hiring her because she had filed a sexual harassment complaint, in violation of Title VII. We have not found how the case ended.

Closed after a regional order: a Louisville labor complaint

After an unfair labor practice charge in January 2017, the National Labor Relations Board's regional office issued a complaint alleging violations of Section 8(a)(1), including coercive rules and retaliation for concerted activity. A Regional Director's order followed in June 2018, and the case is closed.

What these claims turn on

In each matter, the dispute is about the link between a complaint and what happened next. In general, a retaliation claim has to connect a protected complaint to a later adverse action, and the other side's response is usually that the action had an independent reason. In the Littleton case, both sides' accounts are in the reporting: the tenant says the eviction was punishment for his reports, and the stated reason was the photographing.

The record includes cases that went the other way, too. Hall closed without a win for the plaintiff, and The Greystar Review lists it with that outcome.

Read the record

Each item below is on The Greystar Review with a link to its original source.

This article summarizes public records and published reporting collected by The Greystar Review. Allegations are described as allegations, and a settlement is not a finding of wrongdoing unless a court or agency says so. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.