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Date: 06-12-2024
Case Style:
Lessie Benningfield Randle, et al. v. City of Tulsa, et al.
Case Number:
Judge: Caroline Wall
Court: District Court, Tulsa County,Oklahoma
Plaintiff's Attorney:
Defendant's Attorney: Tulsa City Attorney's Office
Description:
Tulsa, Oklahoma civil rights lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a civil rights violation theory claiming to have been injured and/or damaged in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.
Plaintiffs, survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, brought suit against Defendants seeking abatement of the public nuisance caused by Defendants' unreasonable, unwarranted, and/or unlawful acts and omissions that began with the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 and continue to this day. Plaintiffs also sought recovery for unjust enrichment for Defendants' exploitation of the Massacre for their own economic and political gain. The district court granted Defendants' motion to dismiss finding Plaintiffs' Petition failed to state a justiciable public nuisance claim and failed to allege a legally cognizable abatement remedy and dismissed Plaintiffs' unjust enrichment claim for failure to cure a defective pleading. Plaintiffs appealed, asserting the district court erred in dismissing both claims. We retained this matter on Plaintiffs' motion and hold that Plaintiffs' grievances do not fall within the scope of our state's public nuisance statute and Plaintiffs' allegations do not support a claim for the equitable doctrine of unjust enrichment.
Unlike most cases that come before this Court, the tragedy that forms the basis of the present appeal is acknowledged and memorialized, at least in part, in Oklahoma law. In 1997, the Oklahoma Legislature passed House Joint Resolution 1035, which established the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission ("Commission") and tasked the Commission with developing the historical record of the racial violence that transpired in the Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma, between May 31 and June 1, 1921. We now know these events as the Tulsa Race Massacre ("Massacre").
When the Commission completed its final report in 2001, [1] a portion of its findings were inscribed into Oklahoma law. [2] The Commission found that there was a "breakdown of the rule of law in Tulsa on May 31-June 1, 1921" after a white mob assembled in the city, threatening the life of Dick Rowland, an African-American who was accused of raping a white woman. 74 O.S. § 8000.1 (2). The Commission found "strong evidence" that:
[S]ome local municipal and county officials failed to take actions to calm or contain the situation once violence erupted and, in some cases, became participants in the subsequent violence which took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, and even deputized and armed many whites who were part of a mob that killed, looted, and burned down the Greenwood area....
Id. The destruction inflicted upon the Greenwood community by the mob was staggering, including the killing of between 100 and 300 people, predominantly African Americans, and the destruction of more than 1,200 homes, schools, churches, and businesses. 74 O.S. § 8000.1 (3).
Even after the initial violence subsided, local officials engaged in actions that exacerbated the harm. State and local officials participated in the mass arrests and detention of Greenwood residents, and black detainees could only be released upon the application of a white person. When Greenwood residents attempted to rebuild their community, they were met with frustration. In one notable example, local officials "attempted to block the rebuilding of the Greenwood community by amending the Tulsa building code to require the use of fire-proof material in rebuilding the area thereby making the costs prohibitively expensive...." 74 O.S. § 8000.1 (3).
Randle v. City of Tulsa, 2024 OK 40, 121502 (Okla. Jun 12, 2024)
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Outcome: Judgment in favor of Defendants affirmed on appeal.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: