PPC Realty, LLC v. Hartford

Summary

The court held that tenants displaced after a fire and subsequent municipal condemnation were displaced persons under the Uniform Relocation Assistance Act because their removal was a direct result of the city's code-enforcement order, regardless of who caused the fire. It further held that the landlord could not invoke the statutory affirmative defense against a lien because that defense is available only in a civil action brought to recover relocation expenses. The judgment was reversed and the case was remanded with direction to deny the application to discharge the lien. Justice Ecker, concurring, agreed with the result but would have treated the statutory scheme as ambiguous and resolved the case using statutory context and legislative history.