In this week's tip, we're asking whether HOAs are increasingly being asked to do the impossible.
The question arises because an HOA has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in the aftermath of last year's tragic shooting of a Black teen by a White homeowner. But we're wondering what the HOA did wrong. Was there was any realistic way for the HOA to have prevented what happened?
It was in April 2023 that Ralph Yarl rang the doorbell of a home in Missouri. The then 16-year-old had arrived at the home to pick up his younger siblings, but it turned out to be the wrong home. The owner shot Yarl in the head and arm. A year later, Yarl is still recovering, and CNN reports that his family says the possibility of brain
damage still exists.
The homeowner, Andrew Lester, reportedly told police the night of the shooting that he saw the teen pulling on the door handle and was "scared to death." He said nothing to Yarl before shooting through the glass door.
Yarl claims he never pulled on the door handle.
Yarl's mother has sued Lester and the Highland Acres Homes Association, where Lester owns a home, accusing both of "careless and negligent conduct." The lawsuit alleges, according to CNN, that
the HOA "was aware of or should have been aware of defendant Andrew Lester's propensity for violence, access to dangerous weapons, and racial animus."
The interesting thing for Todd J. Billy, CCAL, an attorney at Sandberg Phoenix in St.
Louis, who is licensed in Missouri and Illinois and has more than 1,000 active condo and HOA clients, is that he's not particularly surprised by this.