North Dakota Code 14-02.5-32 – Administrative penalties
1. If the department determines at a hearing under section 14-02.5-31 that a respondent has engaged in or is about to engage in a discriminatory housing practice, the department may order the appropriate relief, including actual damages, reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs, and other injunctive or equitable relief.
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 14-02.5-32
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Individual: means a human being. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
2. To vindicate the public’s interest, the department may assess a civil penalty against the respondent in an amount that does not exceed:
a. Eleven thousand dollars if the respondent has been found by order of the department or a court to have committed a prior discriminatory housing practice; or b. Except as provided by subsection 3, twenty-seven thousand dollars if the respondent has been found by order of the department or a court to have committed one other discriminatory housing practice during the five-year period ending on the date of the filing of the charges and fifty-five thousand dollars if the respondent has been found by the department or a court to have committed two or more discriminatory housing practices during the seven-year period ending on the date of filing of the charge.
3. If the acts constituting the discriminatory housing practice that is the object of the charge are committed by the same individual who has previously been found to have committed acts constituting a discriminatory housing practice, the civil penalties in subdivision b of subsection 2 may be imposed without regard to the period of time within which any other discriminatory housing practice occurred.
4. At the request of the department, the attorney general shall sue to recover a civil penalty due under this section. Funds collected under this section must be paid to the state treasurer for deposit in the general fund.