By Randy Furst, Star Tribune

 

Neighbors of a woman facing imminent eviction from her south Minneapolis house filed suit Tuesday, claiming that if she is forced to leave, her home will fall into disrepair like others on the block and become another nuisance property.

 

Lawyers filed the suit in Hennepin County District Court on behalf of a neighborhood organization and neighbors of Rosemary Williams.

 

She faces trial next Tuesday in district court over an attempt by GMAC Mortgage LLC to evict her. She lost her home on the 3100 block of Clinton Avenue S. at a foreclosure sale in September.

 

Jordan Kushner, one of Williams' attorneys, said he will ask a judge Tuesday to postpone the eviction trial and consolidate that case with the lawsuit.

 

Williams' attorneys had intended at the eviction trial to argue that removing Williams will create a nuisance vacant property, further damaging the neighborhood. The lawyers said it was a

novel legal approach, but one they were not sure they'd be allowed to make in that forum. So they filed the lawsuit.

 

The plaintiffs in the suit are the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization [CANDO], and 17 of Williams' neighbors.

 

A Minneapolis attorney representing GMAC referred questions to a spokesperson in Pennsylvania, who could not be reached late Tuesday afternoon for comment.