2026-09-27 · Federal · Courts

What happened. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on August 7, 2026 affirmed summary judgment for a Miami condominium association and its directors on a unit owner's Fair Housing Act disparate-treatment and hostile-housing-environment claims. The decision in Derhem v. Bay House Miami Condominium Ass'n, No. 24-13378, is unpublished and not binding precedent.¹

What the court held

• Stray remarks. An alleged racial remark by the board president was not direct evidence of discrimination, because “remarks by non-decisionmakers or remarks unrelated to the decisionmaking process itself are not direct evidence,” and the president “did not have the final say about whether to impose fines.” The court described the alleged remarks as “undoubtedly repugnant, if true.”
• Legitimate reasons. The association documented violations “on a constant and ongoing basis” — unregistered guests, short-term room rentals and cloned key fobs. Its governing documents “clearly allow for fines and suspensions,” and “many residents faced similar consequences.”
• Comparators. Other residents who had roommates did so under “rental agreements with the Association”; the plaintiff did not, so they were not similarly situated.
• Hostile environment. The standard is harassment “sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to interfere with or deprive the plaintiff of her right to use or enjoy her home,” and “a single racial epithet, as abhorrent as it is, does not suffice.”¹

The framework

The panel analysed the Fair Housing Act claims using employment-discrimination case law under Title VII, as the Eleventh Circuit does generally. Under that framework, an association's documented, evenly applied enforcement under its governing documents supplies the legitimate, non-discriminatory reason, and the plaintiff must then show it was a pretext. Here the record of comparable enforcement against other residents defeated the pretext showing.

What to watch next

No rehearing petition had been reported. Because the opinion is unpublished, it is persuasive only.

1. Derhem v. Bay House Miami Condominium Ass'n, No. 24-13378 (11th Cir. Aug. 7, 2026) (unpublished) ↩