Lawsuits allege that small towns across the U.S. cracking down on ?nuisance law? violations unfairly burden homeowners Hilda Brucker didn?t know she had been fined until she received a call telling her to rush to court. On October 10, 2016, the 58-year-old freelance writer was working on a ghostwriting project at her home in Doraville, Georgia, a modest ranch house in the forested suburb just northeast of Atlanta, when the phone rang.
According to Brucker?s legal complaint, a city official told her she was due in court, and, afraid that a warrant might be issued for her arrest, she decided to show up. The reason for this sudden call" A week before, Brucker had evidently been fined $100 for rotted wood and chipped paint on her home?s facade, high weeds in her backyard, and cracks in her unpaved gravel driveway, which had been virtually unchanged since she moved in 26 years prior. Unbeknownst to her, local code enforcement officials had inspected her home on October 3 and alleged they sent the citations via certified mail (Brucker says she never received the letter, and her complaint alleges that there are no records the certified letter was ever sent). Brucker went to the Doraville Courthouse, pleaded no contest, and paid the $100 fee.
She was also given six months of criminal probation for a series of small aesthetic complaints about her own home, according to her complaint, meaning she couldn?t leave the state without the permission of her probation officer. I...