Towne Properties Lawsuit Cases: Tenant Safety, ADA, and Fair Housing

Towne Properties, the Cincinnati-based real estate company, has been named in lawsuits touching tenant safety, condominium management, disability and family-leave discrimination, fair housing, and a bankruptcy stay violation. Outcomes have varied. The company won a federal employment case on the “honest-belief rule” and prevailed against a condo owner who was declared a vexatious litigator, but a bankruptcy judge held it in civil contempt in 2026, and an Ohio appellate court once revived a negligence claim tied to a tenant’s rape. A high-profile dispute with Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment over building security remains pending.

Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment Sues Over Building Security

In late 2025, Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment sued Towne Properties over conditions at 700 Walnut Street in downtown Cincinnati, which housed the restaurant group’s corporate headquarters and its Lempicka event space. CEO Brittany Ruby Miller alleged that Towne Properties displayed a “flagrant disregard” for safety by failing to secure building entrances, implement visitor check-ins, or add on-site security despite repeated requests. The complaint cited car break-ins affecting employees, a bullet fired into an executive’s office, and an armed robbery.¹

The restaurant group closed the Lempicka space at the end of October 2025 and began seeking a new home for its roughly 60 corporate employees. Miller said the move was about a “landlord dispute regarding safety protocols” and was unrelated to broader downtown crime concerns.²

Towne Properties founder and chairman Neil Bortz replied that “safety and security are top priorities at all Towne Properties locations” and that the company had “continually invested in property improvements and security measures at 700 Walnut.”² The company filed a countersuit denying the allegations and characterizing the lawsuit as an attempt to escape a long-standing business relationship over a “failed business concept” with years remaining on the lease. The corporate office lease ran through August 2028, the Lempicka lease through August 2030. Towne also accused the restaurant group of defamation and of removing items from the Lempicka space.³ The dueling lawsuits were pending in the Cincinnati court system as of late 2025.

Bankruptcy Court Contempt Finding

A federal bankruptcy judge held Towne Properties in civil contempt in February 2026 for violating the automatic stay that protects people who file for bankruptcy. The tenant, Alysha Paige, filed for Chapter 7 in September 2024 while renting at the Prescott Place apartment complex. Towne Properties received notice of the filing by September 20, 2024, and six days later filed an eviction action against Paige in Franklin County Municipal Court. Paige had already vacated the apartment and returned her keys two days before the eviction was filed.⁴

Towne Properties dismissed the eviction in October 2024, but the filing stayed on Paige’s credit report and made new housing hard to find. Judge Nami Khorrami of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio ordered the company to pay $13,216.50 in actual damages for Paige’s increased housing costs and $2,500 in punitive damages. The company was also ordered to send Paige a letter acknowledging the eviction was wrongly filed and to notify three national credit reporting agencies and rental screening companies to clear the negative mark.⁴

Lindsay P. v. Towne Properties: Landlord Liability for Tenant Safety

An Ohio appellate decision from 2013 remains one of the more significant rulings tied to the company. In Lindsay P. v. Towne Properties Asset Management, a tenant identified as Lindsay sued after she was raped by a non-tenant named Haynes, the boyfriend of a neighboring tenant.⁵

Lindsay had reported escalating harassment by Haynes: noise, banging on her door, screaming, and a pseudonymous Facebook message requesting sex that linked to a pornographic video. She told the landlord she believed Haynes was stalking her. Towne Properties moved Lindsay within the building, told her to contact police, and warned Haynes and his girlfriend to stay away. The company learned Haynes was not on the lease but did not evict him. Haynes later raped Lindsay and was convicted, receiving a nine-year prison sentence.⁶

The trial court granted summary judgment to Towne Properties on the negligence claims. In September 2013, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District reversed. Landlords generally have no duty to protect tenants from third-party crime, the court held, but an exception applies when the landlord “should have reasonably foreseen the criminal activity.” Given the documented harassment and the landlord’s awareness of Haynes’ conduct, whether the response was adequate was a fact question for a jury.⁵

Smith v. Towne Properties: ADA and FMLA Claims

Robyn Smith, a former community manager, sued Towne Properties under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Smith had taken medical leave for a condition called pseudotumor cerebri and argued that her firing was driven by disability bias and retaliation for using FMLA leave.⁷

Towne Properties said the real reason was theft. An internal investigation concluded Smith had misappropriated roughly $14,000 in gas, electric, and water utilities by charging personal bills to a company client, and had used two parking garages without authorization. The company paid restitution to the property owner and fired her for dishonesty. Smith responded that a former employer had authorized the free utilities and that the matter was a misunderstanding.⁸

Both the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Towne Properties. In a March 2020 opinion, the Sixth Circuit applied the “honest-belief rule”: even if the company was wrong that Smith had stolen, it had conducted a reasonably thorough investigation and had an “ample factual basis” for its belief at the time. Because the employer acted in good faith on particularized facts, Smith could not show pretext. The court confirmed the honest-belief rule also applies to FMLA retaliation claims, and dismissed everything.⁹

Madison House Condominium Litigation

A drawn-out dispute at the Madison House condominium building at 2423 Madison Avenue in Cincinnati produced litigation that ultimately went against the owner challenging Towne Properties. Owner Edgar Ragouzis alleged serious structural problems including leaking balconies, crumbling concrete, and exposed rebar, and drew comparisons to the 2021 Surfside collapse in Florida. City inspectors issued citations for building code violations tied to water infiltration from windows, balcony doors, flashing, and the roof.¹⁰

In November 2023, seven owners including Ragouzis sued to remove the condo association’s board and Towne Properties LLC as the management company. A larger group of 137 owners, organized as the Madison House Owners Protection Group, filed a counterclaim seeking dismissal, a vexatious litigator designation for Ragouzis, and $5.25 million in compensatory damages, claiming lost market value from the public attention.¹⁰

In September 2024, the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas dismissed Ragouzis’s complaint with prejudice as a sanction for repeated failure to comply with court orders on building repairs. The court found him in contempt over conduct that included obstructing HVAC repairs, interfering with contractors, and conducting unauthorized inspections. In January 2026, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the First District affirmed, calling his conduct “egregious and outrageous.” A successor judge declared him a vexatious litigator.¹¹

Fair Housing Act Case

In February 2024, the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center and Janice Jessen filed a federal lawsuit against Towne Properties Asset Management Company, Governours Square LLC, and a person named Charity Vann, alleging violations of the Fair Housing Act. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.¹² Available court records do not describe the alleged discrimination beyond the statutory housing-discrimination designation.

The plaintiffs filed a stipulated dismissal with prejudice on July 23, 2024, and the case was terminated the following day.¹² A parallel complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission was recorded as a withdrawal of charge and dismissal, submitted through the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The commission categorized the action as a withdrawal rather than a settlement.¹³

About Towne Properties

Towne Properties was founded on June 1, 1961, by Neil Bortz along with partners Lambert Agin and Marvin Rosenberg, starting with row-house renovations in Cincinnati’s Mount Adams neighborhood.¹⁴ The company is headquartered at 1055 Saint Paul Place in Cincinnati and operates across four states with roughly 900 employees. Its portfolio includes more than 12,000 apartments, over 130,000 homeowner and condo association units, and more than 600,000 square feet of office space.¹⁵ Neil Bortz serves as chairman, and his son Adam Bortz is the current CEO.¹⁶

1
WLWT. Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment Lawsuit Against Landlord Over Security
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FOX19. Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment Relocating HQ, Closing Downtown Event Space
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Local 12. Jeff Ruby Culinary Entertainment and Towne Properties File Dueling Lawsuits
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GovInfo. In Re Alysha Paige, Case No. 2:24-bk-53659
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Midpage. Lindsay P. v. Towne Properties Asset Mgt. Co., Ltd.
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Eric Goldman Blog. Landlord May Be Liable When a Tenant’s Facebook Harassment Leads to a Rape
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Midpage. Robyn Smith v. Towne Properties Asset Mgmt.
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HR Dive. 6th Cir: Employee Mistakenly Fired for Stealing Not Discriminated Against
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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Smith v. Towne Properties Asset Mgmt. Co., Inc.
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WCPO. Madison House Residents Say They Lost Millions Due to Water Damage Controversy
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First District Court of Appeals of Ohio. Madison House Condominium Owners Association v. Ragouzis
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PACER Monitor. Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, Inc. et al v. Towne Properties Asset Management Company et al
13
Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Civil Rights Commission Meeting Minutes – April 2024
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Towne Properties. Towne History as Told by Neil Bortz, Founder and Chairman
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Cincinnati Enquirer. Towne Properties’ Neil Bortz Wins Deloitte Cincinnati 100 Carl H. Lindner Award
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Towne Properties. Management Team