While Mildred was in the hospital for open-heart surgery, she fell behind on her rent. Her landlord had the right to evict her, but not the right to take possession of her apartment and its contents without a court order. Three days before she was released from the hospital, her landlord told her he had changed her locks and cut off her utilities.

When Mildred asked to get into the apartment to remove her things, her landlord refused and told her to sue him. The Pro Bono Project referred her case to Knoxville attorney Heather Anderson. Heather obtained a court order allowing Mildred to remove her belongings from the apartment, but when she went to her home, she found another tenant living there.

Everything she owned had been removed except for her furniture, which the new tenant had purchased from the landlord. Attorney Anderson filed suit against the landlord and won a $6,000 judgment in Mildred’s favor.

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