Harvey v. Town of Merrillville

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-City officials' motion for summary judgment in plaintiffs' section 1983 action alleging that defendants denied plaintiffs' equal protection rights on account of their race when defendants approved proposed expansion of plaintiffs' subdivision over their protests that said expansion would exacerbate problems associated with retention pond located in their subdivision. While plaintiffs alleged that defendants gave more favorable treatment to residents of different subdivision, plaintiffs failed to establish through competent evidence racial make-up of residents of comparable subdivision, and record otherwise showed that proposed comparable subdivision was not sufficiently similar to plaintiff's subdivision where comparable subdivision had different zoning classification and did not have retention pond.