Mesquite woman sues landlord to stop eviction; lawyers say notice was fabricated by court

A Mesquite mother of seven sued her landlord to stop an eviction that her lawyer says was unlawful because she did not receive proper notice.

Chantel Hardaway alleges in the suit filed Tuesday that the court that issued the eviction against her falsified a notice of her hearing date. A Dallas County court granted an emergency temporary restraining order on Wednesday that stopped Hardaway’s eviction.

Hardaway’s attorney Mark Melton said his client did not receive a 30-day notice to vacate, as required by the CARES Act, and that someone at the Dallas county court of Justice of the Peace Margaret O’Brien falsified an official notice of the woman’s re-set hearing date after he asked to see a copy of it in the court’s records.

In a statement to The Dallas Morning News, the judge denied any wrongdoing by her court and said she is prohibited from commenting on active litigation.

However, O’Brien said Hardaway received notice of her hearing date in person by “hand delivery” and failed to show up, and “there is no indication of court documents being falsified.”

“My work ethic and work product are excellent,” O’Brien continued in another statement to The News late Friday. “The public trust and integrity of the court has not been jeopardized. Judges routinely have to deal with people that make all kinds of false, mistaken, uninformed, aggressive, and inflammatory statements. Today is no different.”

On March 30, Hardaway found a notice to vacate by April 3 on a table in her Mesquite apartment, according to the lawsuit. Hardaway’s original eviction hearing, on June 15, was rescheduled at the landlord’s request. The court set the new hearing for July 27 and notified the landlord of the new date but not Hardaway, the suit alleges.

Hardaway learned of the missed hearing on Aug. 4 when she was served with a 24-hour notice to vacate after O’Brien’s court issued an eviction in the landlord’s favor, according to the lawsuit. One day later, Hardaway filed a motion to stop the eviction, which O’Brien denied that same day.

Hardaway asked a court clerk to review her eviction case file and found no evidence of a notice sent by the court. Melton, her lawyer, then filed a motion Aug. 5 to set aside the default judgment, claiming Hardaway was denied due process.

According to the lawsuit, a clerk in O’Brien’s court said the motion would be granted, but later that evening the clerk told Melton that O’Brien “changed her mind and would not be signing the order.”

Hardaway was told she would be evicted Tuesday morning. In the lawsuit, Melton states that he received an anonymous call the same day from someone claiming to be married to a clerk in O’Brien’s court. The caller said the clerks were “extremely frustrated” by the case, alleging the notice of Hardaway’s new hearing date was forged after her attorney asked to see a copy.

Melton inspected Hardaway’s case file on Tuesday and found a notice of a new hearing date, according to the suit. The same clerk who helped Hardaway review her case file on Aug. 5 told Melton that she “did not recall seeing that page in this file” weeks earlier, the suit alleges.

The lawsuit claims that Melton inspected other new hearing notices issued on the same date and they did not resemble the one in Hardaway’s file this week.

A Dallas county court will hear Hardaway’s case Thursday.